Formation of a novel preference and aversion by simultaneous activation ofthe representations of absent cues

Pairing the associatively activated representation of almond with the: repr esentation of sucrose resulted in greater consumption of almond on test tha n controls. In addition, pairing the representation of almond with the repr esentation of quinine resulted in lower almond consumption than controls. T hese results support and extend the novel finding of Dwyer, Mackintosh and Boakes [Dwyer, D.M., Mackintosh, N.J., Boakes, R.A., 1998. Simultaneous act ivation of the representation of absent cues results in the formation of an excitatory association between them. J. Exp. Psychol. Anim. Behav. Process . 24, 163-171] that a preference could be established to a neutral flavour by pairing the representation of that flavour with the representation of su crose in the absence of either flavour. Taken together these results questi on the modification of SOP proposed by Holland [Holland, P.C., 1983. Repres entation mediated overshadowing and potentiation of conditioned aversions. J. Exp. Psychol. Anim. Behav. Process. 9, 1-13; Holland, P.C., 1990. Event representation in Pavlovian conditioning: image and action. Cognition 37, 1 05-131] to explain the occurrence of mediated conditioning. An alternative modification of SOP by Dickinson and Burke [Dickinson, A., Burke, J., 1996. Within-compound associations mediate the retrospective revaluation of caus ality judgments. Q. J. Exp. Psychol. 49B, 60-80] is considered, but while i t can account for the current results it does not predict mediated conditio ning. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.