J Comp Physiol Psychol. 1978 Oct;92(5):907-16. doi: 10.1037/h0077531.

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

Journal of comparative and physiological psychology

B G Galef, B Osborne

PMID: 730860 DOI: 10.1037/h0077531

Abstract

The present experiments examined the conditions under which rats rapidly learn to avoid ingesting visually distinctive food objects associated with toxicosis. It was found that the presence of a novel taste associated with a visually distinctive food object faciliated acquisition of visual-cue-toxicosis associations. Further experiments failed to support either higher order conditioning or sensory preconditioning models of this phenomenon. The results are discussed in terms of species' differences in the conditions under which attention is directed to visual cues associated with ingesta. The implications of these findings for the existence of visual aposomatisms (warning colors) in naturally occurring toxic species are also examined.

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Substances

• Lithium

MeSH terms

• Animals
• Association Learning*
• Attention
• Avoidance Learning*
• Cues*
• Discrimination Learning
• Feeding Behavior
• Learning*
• Lithium / poisoning
• Male
• Rats
• Reaction Time
• Taste*
• Time Factors
• Visual Perception*

Publication Types

• Journal Article

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