Consummatory successive negative contrast in infant rats

SUÁREZ ANDREA; MUSTACA A; PAUTASSI RM; FREIDIN E; KAMENETZKY GISELLE

Jaen

Congreso; XXIVth International Congress of the Spanish Society for Comparative Psychology and XVIth Biennial Meeting of the International Society for Comparative Psychology; 2012

Universidad de Jaen

: The paradoxical effects of reinforcement were assessed during early ontogeny with instrumental procedures. Instrumental successive negative contrast, assessed through a runway, had been found at 25-26 post natal day (PND). We evaluated consummatory successive negative contrast (cSNC) in 14-19 postnatal day-old pups. Animals were exposed to sucrose (12% or 2%, preshift phase). Three or 24 hours later (Experiments 1 and 2, respectively) rats received 2% sucrose (postshift phase). In both experiments the infants exhibited a magnitude of reinforcement acquisition effect. An abrupt decrease in sucrose intake was observed during the postshift. This phenomenon, indicative of consummatory successive negative contrast, was accompanied by an increase in aversive oroffacial responsiveness, probably reflecting an aversive hedonic processing of the 2% sucrose. We discuss the differences between processes involved in consummatory and instrumental procedures in the framework of Amsel?s frustration theory and highlight this finding as probably the first evidence of cSNC in infant rats.