Abstract
Rats were used in a conditioned taste aversion procedure in order to examine the effects of context exposure duration during the conditioning sessions on conditioned responding. One flavor was paired with lithium chloride during a long session in one context, whereas another flavor was conditioned during a short session in another context. Testing occurred in the home cage. The results showed that conditioning during short sessions produced strong conditioned taste aversions. Conditioning during long sessions produced strong conditioned taste aversions when the conditioned-stimulus-unconditionedstimulus (CS-US) pairing occurred at the end of the lengthy session. Other results showed that context-US associations were formed during the short duration sessions and that these associations supported conditioned responding to the CS trained in that context. The results are discussed with respect to the different influences that contextual cues can exert on conditioned responding.
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Support for this project was provided by nimh grant ro1 MH59039-01. We thank J. Calton, J. Hart, M. McEwen, and B. Butchart for assistance in conducting these experiments and Bob Batsell and Steve Reilly for reading an earlier version of this article.
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Bills, C., Smith, S., Myers, N. et al. Effects of context exposure during conditioning on conditioned taste aversions. Animal Learning & Behavior 31, 369–377 (2003). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03195997
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03195997