Early learning and retention of a conditioned taste aversion.

Weanling rats were trained on a taste aversion task and tested 60 days later using the single bottle and preference methods for assessing the retention of a taste aversion, and a competitive situation in which the CS was eventually substituted for plain water. Only the competitive situation showed the effects of the early taste aversion training. The results are discussed in terms of the conditioning and reactivation of adrenocortical steroid elevations and how these might affect subsequent retrieval.