Associative learning in preweanling rats: looking for potentiation of latent inhibition

Abstract

This study presents an experiment with young rats using a flavor conditioning procedure with two main goals. Our first objective was to demonstrate the latent inhibition effect with developing rats. Latent inhibition is demonstrated when non-reinforced preexposure to the conditioned stimulus impairs the subsequent acquisition of associative learning. Our second objective was to test a prediction of the Hall and Rodriguez (2010) theory of latent inhibition. According to this model, we would expect a potentiation of latent inhibition when the preexposure phase involves the presentation of two stimuli simultaneously. This prediction has been confirmed in experiments with adult rats but has not yet been investigated with young rats. Although the results indicate that we have been able to demonstrate latent inhibition, we did not observe the expected potentiation of this effect. These results may be explained by the immature development of the young rat´s sensory system.