Contextual control of the retardation of flavour aversion learning by preexposure to the unconditioned stimulus: Acquisition or retrieval deficit?

•The US-preexposure effect, was attenuated with a context shift between preexposure and conditioning.•The context shift was without effect when it occurred between conditioning and test.•These results are consistent with an interpretation of the US-preexposure effect in terms of acquisition deficit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavioural processes 2021-07, Vol.188, p.104394-104394, Article 104394
Main Authors: de Brugada, Isabel, González, Felisa, Cándido, Antonio, Hall, Geoffrey
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acquisition or retrieval theory
Context
Injection-cues
Taste aversion
US-preexposure effect
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Summary:•The US-preexposure effect, was attenuated with a context shift between preexposure and conditioning.•The context shift was without effect when it occurred between conditioning and test.•These results are consistent with an interpretation of the US-preexposure effect in terms of acquisition deficit of the target association.•They provide no support for the suggestion that the US-preexposure effect depends on retrieval deficit at the test stage. Two experiments, using rats as the subjects, and flavour aversion learning with an injection of lithium chloride (LiCl) as the unconditioned stimulus (US), examined the effects of a context shift between phases of the procedure on the retardation of learning produced by preexposure to the US. Experiment 1 showed that the US-preexposure effect (the reduction in the size of the conditioned aversion) was not attenuated when the animals were given both preexposure to the US and the conditioning procedure in a novel context but received the test phase in a different context (the home cages). Experiment 2 showed that, after degrading the injection cues–illness association by interpolating saline injections between LiCl preexposures, the US-preexposure effect was attenuated when there was a context shift between preexposure and conditioning, but that the context shift was without effect when it occurred between conditioning and test. These results are consistent with the proposal that US preexposure obtained in this procedure has its effect by interfering with the formation of the target association; they provide no support for the suggestion that the effect depends on interference at the test stage.
ISSN:0376-6357
1872-8308
DOI:10.1016/j.beproc.2021.104394