Flavour aversion produced by running and attenuated by prior exposure to wheels

Authors: Baysari M.; Boakes R.

Source: The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology B, Volume 57, Number 3, July 2004 , pp. 273-286(14)

Publisher: Psychology Press, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

Buy & download fulltext article:

Price: $50.43 plus tax (Refund Policy)

Abstract:

In two experiments hungry rats were given access to running wheels. When given the novel flavour, almond, prior to novel access to the wheels, a conditioned aversion to almond was revealed by a subsequent two-bottle test. No such aversion was found in rats with previous experience of wheel running, whether this prior running occurred in the absence of any novel flavour, as in Experiment 1, or following access to saccharin, as in Experiment 2. These results suggest that the failure of rats with prior experience of the running wheels to develop a flavour aversion (unconditioned stimulus, US, preexposure effect) is unlikely to be due to associative blocking. Instead it seems that increasing exposure to a wheel produces habituation of its nausea-inducing properties.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02724990344000132

Affiliations: 1: University of Sydney Australia

Publication date: 2004-07-01

More about this publication?