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Open-Field Foraging: The Influence of Prior Taste-Aversion Conditioning

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Abstract

Two experiments evaluating open-field foraging behavior of rats that had received prior taste aversion conditioning to liquid saccharin are reported. In both studies each rat had free access to six foraging patches containing powdered laboratory chow (three plain, three saccharin-adulterated). As consumption at the saccharin-adulterated patches was significantly less for taste-aversion treated animals than at the plain patches, generalization of a taste aversion to a different type of ingestive stimulus in a different environment was demonstrated. The possible relationship of these data to environmental potentiation effects is discussed.

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Davis, S.F., Richard, M.M. & Nash, S.M. Open-Field Foraging: The Influence of Prior Taste-Aversion Conditioning. Psychol Rec 36, 365–373 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03394955

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03394955

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