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Augmentation, not blocking, in an A+/AX+ flavor-conditioning procedure

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Abstract

An A+/AX+ Pavlovian conditioning design typically produces weakened or blocked conditioning to stimulus X. Two experiments were conducted in which rats first received an odor (A+) paired with an emetic US, and then received odor and taste (AX+) paired with the US. In both experiments, the preconditioned odorfacilitated conditioning to the taste. In Experiment 1, a group that received two odor-illness pairings in A+ conditioning had a stronger taste aversion than a group that only had a single odor-illness pairing. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the strengthened taste aversion in the A+/AX+ condition was not due to stimulus generalization. The results represent a unique outcome in the flavor-aversion literature that is similar to potentiation. We propose that this facilitated conditioning to X in the A+/AX+ design be termedaugmentation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Furman University, 29613, Greenville, SC

    John D. Batson

  2. Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas

    W. Robert Batsell

Authors
  1. John D. Batson
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  2. W. Robert Batsell
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Correspondence to John D. Batson or W. Robert Batsell.

Additional information

National Science Foundation Grant SBR-9531717 provided partial support for these studies. The authors thank Gayla Y. Paschall and George Montgomery for their assistance with these experiments.

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Batson, J.D., Batsell, W.R. Augmentation, not blocking, in an A+/AX+ flavor-conditioning procedure. Psychon Bull Rev 7, 466–471 (2000). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03214358

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