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What did John Garcia find in his studies of taste aversion?

User Bushed
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Final answer:

John Garcia found that taste aversion can be conditioned in organisms, is an evolutionary adaptation, and has biological constraints, with tastes more likely associated with illness than other stimuli.

Step-by-step explanation:

John Garcia's research revealed that taste aversion is an example of classical conditioning where an organism, such as a rat, learns to associate a specific taste with illness or discomfort. In his studies, Garcia discovered that this form of conditioning could occur even if there was an extended time lapse between the consumption of a taste and the onset of sickness, which does not follow the typical pattern of immediate cause-and-effect in classical conditioning. This learning process was shown to be an evolutionary adaptation to help organisms avoid potentially harmful foods, contributing to species survival.

Garcia's experiments also demonstrated that there were biological constraints to learning, showing that rats easily learned to avoid tastes associated with sickness but not lights or sounds, indicating that not all stimuli are equally effective in conditioning.

User Wessel
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