Acquisition and extended retention of a conditioned taste aversion in preweanling rats

Four experiments employed a taste aversion conditioning procedure appropriate for both neonatal and adult rats to investigate the ontogeny of extended retention. In Exp I, 200 outbred albino rats trained at 1, 10, 20, or 60 days of age were tested for retention of the taste aversion 25 days later. At testing, only those Ss conditioned when 20 or 60 days old demonstrated significant taste aversions. Exps II and III, with 190 Ss, established that Ss 14-25 days old and older were able to retain significant taste aversions following a 25-day retention interval. 80 younger Ss did, however, acquire and retain the aversion for several days and showed a gradual retention loss over progressively longer retention intervals (Exp IV). Findings suggest that preweanling rats demonstrate initial consolidation, storage, and retrieval of conditioned taste aversions. It is only after this initial period that retention deficits become evident. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).