Taste potentiation of poisoned odor by temporal contiguity.

The synergistic interaction between odor and taste in flavor-toxicosis conditioning was tested in two experiments. The temporal interval between a 2-min odor and a 2-min taste was varied for thirsty rats licking at a water spout. In the first experiment, taste was presented at time zero, and odor was presented at -10, -1, 0, 1 and 10 min to independent groups in a simple compartment. In the second experiment, taste was presented at 0, and odor was presented at -5, -2, and 0 min in a "wind tunnel" apparatus. The results indicated that odor alone is an ineffective conditioned stimulus for a toxic unconditioned stimulus under our conditions, simultaneous (0-min) presentation of odor with taste potentiates the odor component so that it becomes more effective than the taste component, a 2-min interval between odor and taste attenuates potentiation, and a 5-min interval disrupts the effect, and the interaction in asymmetrical, that is, odor has no such systematic effect on the conditioning of taste.