An analysis of response, direction and place learning in an open field and T maze.

Abstract

Rats were trained to locate food in a response, direction, or place problem on an open field located at 2 positions. In Experiment 1, both the response and direction groups solved the problem. The place group failed to solve the task in approximately 300 trials. Experiment 2 demonstrated that rats need distinguishable start points to solve a place problem when neither a response nor a direction solution is available. Findings from Experiment 3 suggest that a combination of path traveled and distinct cues help to differentiate start points. Experiment 4 replicated the findings using a T maze. These results suggest "place" solutions are difficult for rats. The data are discussed with respect to conditional learning and modern spatial mapping theory.

The relative influence of place and direction in the Morris water task.

“…Further, the claim that animals shift from place navigation to another form of responding is clearly at odds with the results of other studies showing that rats learn turning responses and directional responses rather easily but learn to navigate to places with more difficulty (Blodgett et al, 1949;Skinner et al, 2003). Because navigation to places requires more training (Blodgett et al, 1949;Skinner et al, 2003;Stringer et al, 2005), perhaps providing more extensive training in the water task would shift the response bias of rats from directional to place navigation, a possibility that was not investigated by Hamilton et al (2007). To evaluate this possibility, rats were given extensive hidden-platform training (240 trials) and tested for directional responding versus navigation to the absolute platform location at 4 separate points during training.…”

“…Studies using dry land mazes (Blodgett et al, 1949;Skinner et al, 2003;Stringer et al, 2005) have demonstrated that rats can learn to place navigate when the apparatus is repositioned during training and the site of reinforcement in the room is held constant. These studies have also shown that rats generally learn directional responses more readily than place responding, thus, the results of Experiments 1-3 and the findings from dry maze studies are largely consistent despite the differential emphasis on training versus testing manipulations.…”

An assessment of response, direction and place learning by rats in a water T-maze

“…Skinner et al (2003) attempted to replicate the findings of Blodgett et al (1949) using an open field and aT-maze. Rats were trained on a response, direction, or place problem to a criterion of eighteen correct trial out of twenty.…”

“…(1949), and suggested that place learning, in the absence of a response or direction strategy, was very difficult. Skinner et al (2003) went on to test an alternative explanation for the poor place learning. They suggested that rats failed to solve the place problem when the maze was shifted left or right (translated) between trials because the rats failed to notice the change in the maze position or start point.…”

“…For example, in the Skinner et al (2003) study, rats were required to make a right tum when the maze was in the left location but a left tum when the maze was translated to the right position, to locate the food reward, which was fixed relative to distal cues. Rats had difficulty solving this place problem and were significantly impaired relative to a Response group that simply made a left tum regardless of maze position, or a Direction group that moved in a constant direction to locate food (See Figure 2 (A-D)for a schematic of the maze positions).…”