Four experiments investigated the content of the memory used by rats in mediating retention intervals interpolated during performance in a 12-arm radial maze. The delay occurred following either the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, or 10th choice. A 15-min delay had the greatest disruptive effect when interpolated in the middle of the choice sequence and less of an effect when it occurred either earlier or later. This pattern of results was obtained when either a free- or forced-choice procedure was used prior to the delay and regardless of whether postdelay testing consisted of completion of the maze or two-alternative forced-choice tests. Assuming that the disruptive effect of a delay is a function of memory load, this implies that the rats used information about previously visited arms (retrospective memory) following an earlier interpolated delay but information about anticipated choices (prospective memory) following a delay interpolated late in the choice sequence. There appeared to be a recency effect only in the early and middle delay conditions. This provides converging evidence for the dual-code hypothesis. No evidence for prospective memory was obtained following a 60-min delay.
Fifteen rats performed in a standard radial-arm maze task (Experiment 1) and in a modified task with a set of forced choices and a 15-min retention interval prior to completion of the maze (Experiment 2). In addition to the standard measure of choice in the radial-arm maze, orientation toward arms was measured and considered to constitute go-no-go "microchoice" decisions. Rats investigated but rejected many arms. A model of choice was developed in which it was assumed that choice decisions about arms were made independently and that microchoices were not selectively guided toward baited arms. The model performed nearly as well as the rats. These results place important limitations on the theory that choice behavior in the radial-arm maze is guided by a cognitive map.
The digital revolution has dramatically increased the ability of individuals and corporations to appropriate and profit from the cultural knowledge of indigenous peoples, which is largely unprotected by existing intellectual property law. In response, legal scholars, anthropologists, and native activists now propose new legal regimes designed to defend indigenous cultures by radically expanding the notion of copyright. Unfortunately, these proposals are often informed by romantic assumptions that ignore the broader crisis of intellectual property and the already imperiled status of the public domain. This essay offers a skeptical assessment of legal schemes to control cultural appropriation-in particular, proposals that indigenous peoples should be permitted to copyright ideas rather than their tangible expression and that such protections should exist in perpetuity. Also examined is the pronounced tendency of intellectual property debate to preempt urgently needed reflection on the political viability of specialrights regimes in pluralist democracies and on the appropriateness of using copyright law to enforce respect for other cultures. MICHAEL F. BROWN is the James N. Lambert Professor of Anthropology and Latin American Studies at Williams College. Educated at Princeton University (A.B., 1972) and the University of Michigan (Ph.D., 1981), Brown has taught at Williams since 1980. His research interests include ritual and religion, human ecology, economic development, and emerging forms of indigenous identity. He is the author of three books about Amazonian Indians, most recently War of Shadows: The Struggle for Utopia in the
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