The establishment of flavor-flavor associations using a sensory preconditioning training procedure

In Experiment 1, rats drank two distinct flavors in sequence during preconditioning; during training, the second of these flavors was paired with a toxin. During testing, there was an aversion to the flavor not directly paired with the toxin. In Experiment 2, the time interval between the two flavors (0, 3, 9, and 27 sec) in the preconditioning phase was varied; learning occurred only if the flavors were separated by 9 sec or less. Experiment 3, using a 60-sec interstimulus interval also did not reveal learning. These results reveal that the temporal gradient for flavor-flavor associative learning is similar to conventional audio-visual sensory preconditioning delay gradients and different from those obtained in flavor-toxicosis experiments. The results are discussed in terms of their critical implication for Revusky's concurrent interference theory of associative learning.