Taste aversion conditioning and t-maze behaviour

Abstract

Garcia, Kovner, and Green (1970) reported that rats will persist in choosing a T‐maze goal following a conditioned reduction in the palatability of the reward associated with that goal. This lack of instrumental response control by the consequence was examined in three experiments. In Experiment l it was found that pairing the flavour of the goal object (saccharin) with toxin‐induced malaise affected choice responding less than did either nonreinforcement or the substitution of a novel lasting quinine solution for the goal object. In Experiments 2 and 3 it was shown that familiarity with the taste of the goal object prior to the toxin pairings increased the persistence of the choice response. The results are discussed with reference to Kamin's (1968, 1969) “retrospective contemplation” hypothesis.