A further demonstration of the learned safety effect in food-aversion learning

Using Kalat’s procedure, a group of rats exposed twice to a novel food showed no more aversion to the food than comparable rats exposed just once 4 h before poisoning, indicating that food-aversion learning is reduced by prior learning that the food is safe.

Abstract

Using Kalat’s procedure, a group of rats exposed twice to a novel food, once 4h and again 1/2 h before poisoning, showed no more aversion to the food than comparable rats exposed just once 4 h before poisoning. This finding, together with the results from various control animals, indicates that food-aversion learning is reduced by prior learning that the food is safe.