US preexposure: Effects on flavor aversions produced by pairing a poisoned partner with ingestion

Abstract

If an unpoisoned rat drinks a flavored solution and then is exposed to another rat suffering from lithium poisoning, the unpoisoned rat will later exhibit a flavor aversion. This is called the poisoned partner effect (PPE). The present experiments showed that (1) the US preexposure effect applies to the PPE since, if the unpoisoned rat is preexposed to poisoned partners, the PPE is attenuated, (2) the magnitude of the PPE increases with the dose of poison, and (3) a poisoned partner accustomed to poisoning produces a slightly weaker PPE than a partner naive to poisoning. Two earlier findings were confirmed: (1) The PPE occurs because the poisoned partner is an aversive US, not because a learned aversion is transferred from one rat to another; and (2) the PPE is weaker than an aversion produced by poisoning itself. © 1982 Psychonomic Society, Inc.