International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy

Area and Peak Shift Effects in a Navigation Task With Rats [Efectos de Desplazamiento del Área y del Máximo en una Tarea de Navegación con Ratas]

Volume 6 Num. 3 - November 2006 - Pages 313-330

Authors:

E. Blanco, J. Santamaría, V.D. Chamizo and T. Rodrigo

Abstract:

In two experiments in a Morris pool rats were trained with a successive discrimination procedure in the presence of two objects or landmarks. The angular separation between the two landmarks signalled either the presence (0 degrees, S+ trials) or the absence (90 degrees, S- trials) of the platform. After training the rats received unrewarded test trials in which one of the landmarks was presented at a range of places in relation to the second landmark. The generalization gradient obtained in Experiment 1 showed higher responding on the side of S+ away from S-. This effect has been called area shift. In Experiment 2, with a slightly different discrimination training, a moderate peak shift effect was obtained. The present experiments show for the first time area and peak shift effects with rats across spatial locations when working with a navigation task.

Key words:

Morris pool, Rats, Peak and area shift effects, Landmarks, Navigation

Full Article

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