Open AccessComparisons of rats' choice behavior among three different radial‐maze tasks[Note 1. This research was partly presented at the 54th Annual ...]
Author(s) -
Haga Yasuaki
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
japanese psychological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.392
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1468-5884
pISSN - 0021-5368
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5884.00035
Subject(s) - task (project management) , two alternative forced choice , psychology , cognitive psychology , management , economics
The present study compared rats' behavioral changes on three tasks on the radial‐arm maze. In the free‐choice task (0Fo/8Fr; no forced choice/eight free choices), rats performed efficiently with the simple response pattern of sequential adjacent‐arm choices. In the two forced‐choice tasks (3Fo/5Fr and 5Fo/3Fr), rats performed as efficiently as 0Fo/8Fr but showed no particular response patterns. The frequency of arm investigation was the highest in 5Fo/3Fr, and was higher in 3Fo/5Fr than in 0Fo/8Fr. The probability of correct rejection, avoiding re‐entry to visited arms after investigation, was also higher in 3Fo/5Fr and 5Fo/3Fr than in 0Fo/8Fr. These results suggest that the rats could adjust their behavior to the task demands.