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Ontogenetic differences in the expresion of odor‐aversion learning in 4‐ and 8‐day‐old rats
Author(s) -
Miller James S.,
Molina Juan C.,
Spear Norman E.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.420230404
Subject(s) - odor , conditioning , preference , associative learning , psychology , association (psychology) , ontogeny , preference test , developmental psychology , biology , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , endocrinology , mathematics , statistics , psychotherapist
Two experiments investigated the ability of preweanling rats, 4 or 8 days of age, to form an odor‐LiCl association across various CS‐US delays. The results of the odor preference test indicated that 8‐day‐old subjects acquired an aversion to the CS+ odor when trained with either a 0 or 15 min CS‐US delay, while 4‐day‐old subjects did not exhibit a reduction in preference for the CS+ at any of the CS‐US delays tested. The absence of a reduction in preference for the CS+ by 4‐day‐old rats could not be attributed to their failure to acquire the odor aversion, however; they avoided a texture with which the CS+ odor was paired in a second order conditioning paradigm. The results suggest that outcomes appearing to represent age‐related differences in associative learning may in some instances be more appropriately viewed as representing ontogenetic differences in the way in which acquired associations are manifested in behavior.