Taste potentiates color-sickness associations in pigeons and quail

Abstract

The present experiments assessed cue utilization in pigeons and quail on similar tests of poison-based aversion learning. In Experiments 1 and 2, three groups of pigeons were given colored water, flavored water, or colored flavored water prior to induction of sickness; these experiments differed only as to the specific colors and flavors used as stimuli. In both experiments, the birds trained with flavored water exhibited reliable taste aversions when tested with uncolored flavored water. Similar degrees of aversion were observed whether the flavored water had been colored or uncolored during training, suggesting that the color cue had little or no effect on the conditioning of the flavor cue. In contrast, the flavor cue had a pronounced effect on the conditioning of the color cue. When tested with unflavored colored water, the birds trained with colored flavored water exhibited significantly stronger color aversions than those trained with unflavored colored water. That is, the flavor cue enhanced or potentiated the conditioning of the color cue. In a third experiment, quail were trained in the same way as the pigeons with virtually the same result. The pattern of cue utilization observed in the present experiments with pigeons and quail differs markedly from that proposed by Wilcoxon, Dragoin, and Kral (1971) for quail.However, a reexamination of the results obtained by Wilcoxon et al, suggested that they are susceptible to an alternative interpretation consistent with the present results.The relative salience of taste and visual cues in poison-based aversion learning (PBAL) seems to vary with species. In rats (Wilcoxon, Dragoin, & Kral, 1971), guinea pigs (Braveman, 1975), monkeys (Gorry & Ober, Note 1), and perhaps all mammals, the taste of an ingested substance is more salient than its appearance. Wilcoxon et al. (1971) have proposed that, for quail, visual cues are more important than taste cues in food selection. For the relative salience of visual and taste cues to be opposite in rodents and birds, at least, seems reasonable: Rodents have relatively poor vision and must rely heavily on smell and taste for finding and recognizing food, while quail and other birds have well-developed visual abilities and rely more heavily on vision in foraging for food and drink.Recently, however, evidence has been obtained in hawks (Brett, Hankins, & Garcia, 1976)and in pigeons (Clarke, Westbrook, & Irwin, 1979) that the pattern of cue utilization in these birds differs markedly from that suggested by Wilcoxon et al. (1971) for quail. Unlike quail, both hawks and pigeons readily acquired taste aversions but seemed to require a special condition to form visual aversions. Hawks exhibited visual averThis research was supported in part by Grant A0681 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Canada. I am grateful to Sam Revusky, Gerard Martin, Richard Pohl, and John Garcia for reading this paper and making many helpful suggestions. Thanks also are due (0 Anne Dawe who ran the animals with meticulous care. Re...

Biological constraints on instrumental and classical conditioning: Retrospect and prospect

“…However, identification of differences in selective pressures between species was by appeal to argument rather than by appeal to experimental evidence, and no attempt was made to identify the behavioral processes underlying species differences in behavior. As might be expected, subsequent research has cast doubt on the adequacy of ecological factors or unique learning mechanisms to account for the observed species differences (Gillette, Martin, & Bellingham, 1980;Lett, 1980).…”

CS–US interval determines the transition from overshadowing to potentiation with flavor compounds

“…Potentiation to a range of cues (e.g., odors, tastes, auditory cues, visual cues) within taste aversion conditioning has been reported since 1978 (e.g., Bouton, Dunlap, & Swartzentruber, 1987;Ellins, Cramer, & Whitmore, 1985;Galef & Osborne, 1978;Holder & Garcia, 1987;Lett, 1980), but evidence of potentiation in more traditional classical conditioning preparations has been scarce. Recently, however, Urcelay and Miller (2009) were the first to demonstrate potentiation in Pavlovian fear conditioning.…”

Expression of a taste aversion conditioned with an odor-taste compound: Overshadowing is relatively weak in weanlings and decreases over a retention interval in adults

“…As a further factual difficulty for the early interpretations of overshadowing, more recent experiments have shown that more salient stimuli can, under some conditions, potentiate rather than overshadow conditioning to less salient stimuli (Durlach & Rescorla, 1980;Lett, 1980;Rusiniak, Hankins, Garcia, & Brett, 1979). Much of the recent interest in potentiation has involved the study of drug-induced aversions conditioned with odor-taste compounds.…”