Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Granada, Campus Cartuja s/n, 18071 Granada, Spain.
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Granada, Campus Cartuja s/n, 18071 Granada, Spain.
Appetite. 2014 Sep;80:161-7. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2014.05.010. Epub 2014 May 15.
In Experiment 1 rats were given training in which a mixture of two flavors was paired with sucrose. This established a substantial preference for each of the flavors; however, when rats were given prior experience with just one of the flavors paired with sucrose, training with the compound produced only a weak preference for the other - an example of the blocking effect, well known in other associative learning paradigms. Both the palatable taste of sucrose and its nutrient properties contribute to its ability to reinforce preference acquisition. The role of these two forms of learning was examined in two further experiments in which the reinforcer used was fructose (which is considered to support preference learning because it is palatable but not through its nutrient properties) or maltodextrin (thought to support preference learning by way of its nutrient properties). In neither case was blocking observed. At the theoretical level, this outcome constitutes a challenge to the attempt to explain flavor-preference learning in terms of the standard principles of associative learning theory. Its implication at the level of application is that the potential of the blocking procedure as a technique for preventing the development of unwanted flavor preferences may be limited.
在实验 1 中，大鼠接受了两种口味混合与蔗糖配对的训练。这建立了对每种口味的实质性偏好；然而，当大鼠仅接受其中一种口味与蔗糖配对的先验经验时，用化合物进行训练只会对另一种口味产生微弱的偏好——这是在其他联想学习范例中众所周知的阻断效应的一个例子。蔗糖的美味口感及其营养特性都有助于其强化偏好获得的能力。在另外两项实验中，考察了这两种学习形式的作用，其中使用的强化物是果糖（被认为支持偏好学习，因为它是美味的，但不是通过其营养特性）或麦芽糊精（被认为通过其营养特性支持偏好学习）。在这两种情况下，都没有观察到阻断。从理论水平来看，这一结果对试图根据联想学习理论的标准原则来解释口味偏好学习提出了挑战。其在应用层面的含义是，阻断程序作为一种防止产生不良口味偏好的技术的潜力可能是有限的。
