An extinction cue reduces spontaneous recovery of a conditioned taste aversion

The effect of an auditory cue presented during extinction on spontaneous recovery of a conditioned taste aversion was investigated in three experiments. Experiment 1 demonstrated that the presence of the cue during extinction did not influence saccharin consumption during that phase, and that an aversion to saccharin in the absence of the cue was stronger at 18 days than at 1 day after extinction, representing spontaneous recovery rather than a renewal effect. Experiment 2 showed that a cue presented during extinction and testing reduced spontaneous recovery. Experiment 3 replicated that effect and showed that it depended on the cue's correlation with extinction and not on an unconditioned effect; cues that had been presented during or prior to conditioning did not reduce spontaneous recovery when presented during testing. The cue's potential to reduce spontaneous recovery through conditioned inhibition or configural cue learning is discussed, as is the possibility that the cue retrieves a saccharin extinction memory in a manner consistent with Bouton's (1993) account of spontaneous recovery.