Spatial guidance of choice behavior in the radial-arm maze

Abstract

In 6 experiments, the performance of male rats in a 12-arm radial maze was examined. The focus of study was the extent to which the spatial location of individual baited maze arms was determined before the rat was exposed to the extramaze visual cues corresponding to the arm, and thereby guided the rat toward the location of baited arms. Such spatial guidance of choice behavior implies a spatially organized cognitive representation of maze arms (i.e., a cognitive map). A higher level of spatial guidance was found when visual access to extramaze cues was restricted than when it was unrestricted. There was no evidence of a difference between the level of spatial guidance in the context of working memory performance and reference memory performance. Some evidence that intramaze cues contributed to microchoice guidance was found. However, spatial guidance, under at least some conditions, is best explained in terms of cognitive mapping.