Stimulus magnitude effects on the extinction of conditioned consummatory responses to flavored sucrose solution in...

Paradoxical extinction effects in the conditioned consummatory behavior of rodents have remained largely elusive. Here, appetitive flavor conditioning was studied to determine if a paradoxical magnitude of reinforcement extinction effect (MREE) can occur in the consummatory behavior of mice. During acquisition training of two experiments with factorial design, animals received daily access to either 32% or 4% sucrose solution, and goal tracking time was measured in one-minute bins. In Experiment 1 the solutions were flavored with either 5% or 0.5% almond essence and in Experiment 2 with 2% almond essence, but combined with continuous or partial schedules of reinforcement. During extinction tests of Experiment 1 and 2, water flavored with 0.5% or 2% almond was presented, respectively. Consummatory performance decreased more abruptly during the initial portion of the extinction sessions after training with 32% as compared to 4% sucrose solution. Furthermore, when given a choice test after extinction training (Experiment 2), animals trained with 32% sucrose, preferred the flavored solution, but animals trained with 4% preferred the unflavored solution. These results are interpreted as indicative of the occurrence of a paradoxical MREE in conditioned consummatory behaviors.