Extinction of taste aversion does not eliminate taste potentiation of odor aversion in rats or color aversion in pigeons

Abstract

Rats were exposed to an odor-taste compound prior to being poisoned with lithium chloride on two occasions in Experiment 1 but only once in Experiment 2. Then, in each experiment, one group was given unreinforced exposures to the taste cue until extinction of the conditioned taste aversion occurred. During a later test, taste potentiation of odor aversion was obtained to a similar extent whether or not the taste aversion had been extinguished. An analogous finding was obtained with pigeons in Experiment 3. The present results indicate that taste potentiation does not depend on an underlying conditioned taste aversion, and, therefore, they support the notion that taste strengthened the odor-sickness (or color-sickness) association during the conditioning process. © 1984 Psychonomic Society, Inc.