Novel taste facilitation of the association of visual cues with toxicosis in rats.

Abstract

The conditions under which rats rapidly learn to avoid ingesting visually distinctive food objects associated with toxicosis were studied. The presence of a novel taste associated with a visually distinctive food object facilitated acquisition of visual-cue-toxicosis associations. Higher order conditioning or sensory preconditioning models of this phenomenon were examined. Species'' differences in the conditions under which attention is directed to visual cues associated with ingesta were discussed. The implications of these findings for the existence of visual aposomatisms (warning colors) in naturally occurring toxic species were also studied.