Data Archive of the Animal Cognition Lab

University of Georgia

Catalog Number: 0008

Title: Time-Place Learning in the Eight-Arm Radial Maze 3

Reference: Pizzo, M.J. & Crystal, J.D. (2004). Time-place learning in the eight-arm radial maze. Learning and Behavior, 32, 240-255.

Note: These data were reported as Experiments 3A-D by Pizzo & Crystal (2004). Experiments 3A, 3B, 3C, and 3D were conducted in sessions 129-137, 138-154, 155-163, and 164-173, respectively; the initial sessions in each experiment consisted of training, and probe tests were conducted on sessions 137, 154, 163, and 173. For list of assignment of rats to conditions see below.

ABSTRACT

Rats (n=4) searched for food on an eight-arm radial maze. Daily 56-min sessions were divided into eight 7-min time zones, during which a different location provided food; locations were randomized across subjects before training. Rats obtained multiple pellets within each time zone by leaving and returning to the correct location. Evidence that rats had knowledge about the temporal and spatial features of the task include: The rats anticipated locations before they became active and anticipated the end of the currently active locations. The rats discriminated currently active locations from earlier and forthcoming active locations in the absence of food transition cues. After the rats left the previously active location, they visited the next correct location more often than expected by chance in the absence of food transition cues. The rats used handling/opening-doors as a cue to visit the first location and timed successive 7-min intervals to get to subsequent locations.

Click here for a picture of the apparatus

Click here for more information about this data set

Back to catalog

Last updated 30 July 2004