Poison-avoidance learning to food-related tactile stimuli: Avoidance of texture cues by rats

Domjan, Michael; Hanlon, Michael J.

doi:10.3758/bf03213713

Cited by 13 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…A particular constraint on learning applies in that food-related memories are more strongly activated than other kinds of memories. Taste is a major component of such food-related memories but, as Domjan and Hanlon (1982) demonstrated, the texture of a food can also be an important component and, in the light of our evidence concerning context-dependency effects that was described earlier, the place where the event took place is another component of such memories. A factor affecting the degree to which a particular food memory is activated is whether it is of a novel event or one that has occurred before.…”

Section: Speculative Conclusionsupporting

confidence: 61%

Taste Aversion Learning Despite Long Delays: How Best Explained?

Kwok¹,

Boakes²

2015

IJCP

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Taste aversion learning (aka conditioned taste aversions or CTA) can occur even when there is delay of some hours between experience of the taste and the subsequent onset of illness. This property of CTA is quite distinct from other forms of associative learning, where typically no association between two events is acquired if they are separated by more than a minute. This paper provides an overview of a series of recent experiments based on the assumption that long-delay CTA is possible only when no potentially overshadowing – or ‘concurrently interfering’ (Revusky, 1971) – events occur during the delay. The general method is one in which in a single conditioning session the rats are first given 8% sucrose, providing the sweet target taste, and 65 min later are injected with lithium chloride. What vary across experiments are the potentially interfering events occurring during the 65-min delay period. When the interfering event is a second, and quite different, taste, namely sour-tasting hydrochloric acid solution (HCl), this produces 1-trial overshadowing of the sucrose aversion, to a degree that is greater when HCl is given late in the delay period, greater when HCl is given in the same context as sucrose and greater when HCl has not been pre-exposed. Other intervening events can also overshadow sucrose aversion learning. These include placement into a novel context, as long as this occurs immediately before injection, and even stimuli that evoke memories of food-related experiences. These results can be accounted for by adding to the Rescorla-Wagner model (Rescorla & Wagner, 1972) the assumption that sickness is comprised of a succession of mini-bouts and the assumption that context-event associations (Wagner, 1981) are important in long-delay CTA.

show abstract

Section: Speculative Conclusionsupporting

confidence: 61%

Taste Aversion Learning Despite Long Delays: How Best Explained?

Kwok¹,

Boakes²

2015

IJCP

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…On a theoretical level, the results suggest that the animal encodes a relatively rich representation of the reinforcer during instrumental learning. Contextual features of the reinforcer are presumably encoded along with many other sensory and motivational features that might also include the receptacle in which the reinforcer is presented or the method with which it is delivered (e.g., Domjan & Hanlon, 1982; Revusky & Parker, 1976; Sjödén & Archer, 1989). There was preliminary evidence that delivery mode was encoded in the present experiments when we contrasted the results of the aversion conditioning phases of Experiments 1 and 3.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Taste aversions often transfer well from one context to another (e.g., Bernal-Gamboa et al, 2015; Bonardi et al, 1990; León et al, 2012; Morón et al, 2002; Rosas & Bouton, 1997, 1998; Rosas & Callejas-Aguilera, 2007), although there is evidence that some context-specificity may develop after multiple conditioning trials (Bonardi et al, 1990); when the contexts are relatively novel (e.g., León et al, 2012; see also Sjödén & Archer, 1989); and when methods that theoretically encourage attention to the context are employed (e.g., Bernal-Gamboa et al, 2015; Rosas & Callejas-Aguilera, 2007). There is also evidence that aversions to foods or fluids can be weakened by changing the spouts or receptacles in which they are delivered (Domjan & Hanlon, 1982; Revusky & Parker, 1976; Sjödén & Archer, 1989). Such results suggest that the strength of an aversion is not necessarily immune to manipulation of exteroceptive, contextual stimuli.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of context on the instrumental reinforcer devaluation effect produced by taste-aversion learning.

Bouton¹,

Allan²,

Tavakkoli³

et al. 2021

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cogniti

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Four experiments manipulated the context in which taste-aversion conditioning occurred when the reinforcer was devalued after instrumental learning. In all experiments, rats learned to lever press in an operant conditioning chamber and then had an aversion to the food-pellet reinforcer conditioned by pairing it with lithium chloride (LiCl) in either that context or a different context. Lever pressing was then tested in extinction to assess its status as a goal-directed action. In Experiment 1, aversion conditioning in the operant conditioning chamber suppressed lever-pressing during the test, but aversion conditioning in the home cage did not. Exposure to the averted pellet in the operant conditioning chamber after conditioning in the home cage did not change this effect (Experiment 2). The same pattern was observed when the different context was a second operant-style chamber (counterbalanced), exposure to the contexts was controlled, and pellets were presented in them in the same manner (Experiment 3). The greater effect of aversion conditioning in the instrumental context was not merely due to potentiated contextual conditioning (Experiment 4). Importantly, consumption tests revealed that the aversion conditioned in the different context had transferred to the test context. Thus, when reinforcer devaluation occurred in a different context, the rats lever pressed in extinction for a reinforcer they would otherwise reject. The results suggest that animals encode contextual information about the reinforcer during instrumental learning and suggest caution in making inferences about action versus habit learning when the reinforcer is devalued in a different context.

show abstract

“…Tactile stimuli are more likely to be effective with species that handle their food before ingestion, such as rats, monkeys and raccoons. When the taste of two food items is identical, aversion can still be formed purely based on different tactile stimuli (Domjan and Hanlon, 1982;. Visual stimuli are often effective in stimulating generalization in birds.…”

Section: Supporting Stimulimentioning

confidence: 99%

Conditioned Taste Aversion as a Tool for Mitigating Human-Wildlife Conflicts

Snijders

Thierij

Appleby

et al. 2021

Front. Conserv. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Modern wildlife management has dual mandates to reduce human-wildlife conflict (HWC) for burgeoning populations of people while supporting conservation of biodiversity and the ecosystem functions it affords. These opposing goals can sometimes be achieved with non-lethal intervention tools that promote coexistence between people and wildlife. One such tool is conditioned taste aversion (CTA), the application of an evolutionary relevant learning paradigm in which an animal associates a transitory illness to the taste, odor or other characteristic of a particular food item, resulting in a long-term change in its perception of palatability. Despite extensive support for the power of CTA in laboratory studies, field studies have exhibited mixed results, which erodes manager confidence in using this tool. Here we review the literature on CTA in the context of wildlife conservation and management and discuss how success could be increased with more use of learning theory related to CTA, particularly selective association, stimulus salience, stimulus generalization, and extinction of behavior. We apply learning theory to the chronological stages of CTA application in the field and illustrate them by synthesizing and reviewing past applications of CTA in HWC situations. Specifically, we discuss (1) when CTA is suitable, (2) how aversion can be most effectively (and safely) established, (3) how generalization of aversion from treated to untreated food can be stimulated and (4) how extinction of aversion can be avoided. For each question, we offer specific implementation suggestions and methods for achieving them, which we summarize in a decision-support table that might be used by managers to guide their use of CTA across a range of contexts. Additionally, we highlight promising ideas that may further improve the effectiveness of CTA field applications in the future. With this review, we aspire to demonstrate the diverse past applications of CTA as a non-lethal tool in wildlife management and conservation and facilitate greater application and efficacy in the future.

show abstract

Poison-avoidance learning to food-related tactile stimuli: Avoidance of texture cues by rats

Cited by 13 publications

References 15 publications

Taste Aversion Learning Despite Long Delays: How Best Explained?

Taste Aversion Learning Despite Long Delays: How Best Explained?

Effect of context on the instrumental reinforcer devaluation effect produced by taste-aversion learning.

Conditioned Taste Aversion as a Tool for Mitigating Human-Wildlife Conflicts

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About