Taste aversion following backward conditioning procedures in preweanling and adult rats

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Abstract
Laboratory rats, 18 and 90 days old, received an intraperitoneal injection (2% body weight) of .15M lithium chloride or .9% saline 10 or 30 min before 15‐min access to 12% sucrose. Additional control groups received LiCl injection followed by tap water access. Testing with a 2‐bottle choice procedure revealed reliable aversion effects for both age groups at each toxicosis‐flavor interval. Adult rats showed reliably greater persistence of aversion following training with the 10‐ than with the 30‐min interval. Rat pups showed no reliable differences in aversion across training intervals. Reliably greater aversion effects occurred for adults than for pups following training at the 10‐min interval. Following training at the 30‐min interval a similar reliable age effect occurred on Test Trial 1; but from Trial 2 onward the magnitude of aversion was similar for pups and adult rats.