Facilitation and retardation of flavor preference conditioning following prior exposure to the flavor conditioned stimulus.

In two experiments, rats received pairings of an almond flavor (Experiments 1 and 2B) or a vanilla flavor (Experiment 2A) with sucrose. In each experiment, half of the rats received prior exposure to the flavor and half were exposed to water. Conditioned preference was then assessed through two-bottle, flavor versus water, choice tests. Latent inhibition (indicated by a weaker preference in pre-exposed subjects) was observed in the experiment using the vanilla flavor. However, facilitation (a stronger preference in pre-exposed subjects) instead of latent inhibition was evident with the almond flavor, both across acquisition trials and in the final choice test. These results indicate that, unlike most other paradigms of Pavlovian conditioning, conditioned stimulus pre-exposure in flavor preference learning may either facilitate or retard the acquisition (or the expression) of a conditioned flavor preference. We explore the proposal that the critical difference between the flavors lies in their hedonic values, with facilitation being more likely in a flavor that is initially disliked.