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Author Healy, S.D.; Braham, S.R.; Braithwaite, V.A. doi  openurl
  Title Spatial working memory in rats: no differences between the sexes Type Journal Article
  Year 1999 Publication Proceedings. Biological Sciences / The Royal Society Abbreviated Journal Proc Biol Sci  
  Volume 266 Issue 1435 Pages 2303-2308  
  Keywords Animals; Estrus/metabolism; Female; Male; Memory/*physiology; Rats; Sex Factors; Swimming  
  Abstract (down) In a number of mammalian species, males appear to have superior spatial abilities to females. The favoured explanations for this cognitive difference are hormonal, with higher testosterone levels in males than females leading to better spatial performance, and evolutionary, where sexual selection has favoured males with increased spatial abilities for either better navigational skills in hunting or to enable an increased territory size. However, an alternative explanation for this sex difference focuses on the role of varying levels of oestrogen in females in spatial cognition (the 'fertility and parental care' hypothesis). One possibility is that varying oestrogen levels result in variation in spatial learning and memory so that, when tested across the oestrous cycle, females perform as well as males on days of low oestrogen but more poorly on days of high oestrogen. If day in the oestrous cycle is not taken into account then, across an experiment, any sex differences found would always produce male superiority. We used a spatial working memory task in a Morris water maze to test the spatial learning and memory abilities of male and female rats. The rats were tested across a number of consecutive days during which the females went through four oestrous cycles. We found no overall sex differences in latencies to reach a submerged platform in a Morris water maze but, on the day of oestrus (low oestrogen), females took an extra swim to learn the platform's location (a 100% increase over the other days in the cycle). Female swim speed also varied across the oestrous cycle but females were no less active on the day of oestrus. These results oppose the predictions of the fertility and parental care hypothesis.  
  Address Department of Psychology, University of Newcastle, UK. s.healey@ed.ac.uk  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0962-8452 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:10629980 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2818  
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Author Zentall, T.R. doi  openurl
  Title Mental time travel in animals: a challenging question Type Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Behavioural processes Abbreviated Journal Behav. Process.  
  Volume 72 Issue 2 Pages 173-183  
  Keywords Animals; *Behavior, Animal; Columbidae; Concept Formation; Conditioning, Operant; *Imagination; *Memory; Mental Recall; Planning Techniques; Rats; *Time Perception; Transfer (Psychology)  
  Abstract (down) Humans have the ability to mentally recreate past events (using episodic memory) and imagine future events (by planning). The best evidence for such mental time travel is personal and thus subjective. For this reason, it is particularly difficult to study such behavior in animals. There is some indirect evidence, however, that animals have both episodic memory and the ability to plan for the future. When unexpectedly asked to do so, animals can report about their recent past experiences (episodic memory) and they also appear to be able to use the anticipation of a future event as the basis for a present action (planning). Thus, the ability to imagine past and future events may not be uniquely human.  
  Address Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0044, USA. zentall@uky.edu  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0376-6357 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:16466863 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 218  
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Author Dusek, J.A.; Eichenbaum, H. openurl 
  Title The hippocampus and memory for orderly stimulus relations Type Journal Article
  Year 1997 Publication Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Abbreviated Journal Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.  
  Volume 94 Issue 13 Pages 7109-7114  
  Keywords Animals; Attention; Discrimination (Psychology)/physiology; Hippocampus/anatomy & histology/*physiology; Male; Memory/*physiology; Rats  
  Abstract (down) Human declarative memory involves a systematic organization of information that supports generalizations and inferences from acquired knowledge. This kind of memory depends on the hippocampal region in humans, but the extent to which animals also have declarative memory, and whether inferential expression of memory depends on the hippocampus in animals, remains a major challenge in cognitive neuroscience. To examine these issues, we used a test of transitive inference pioneered by Piaget to assess capacities for systematic organization of knowledge and logical inference in children. In our adaptation of the test, rats were trained on a set of four overlapping odor discrimination problems that could be encoded either separately or as a single representation of orderly relations among the odor stimuli. Normal rats learned the problems and demonstrated the relational memory organization through appropriate transitive inferences about items not presented together during training. By contrast, after disconnection of the hippocampus from either its cortical or subcortical pathway, rats succeeded in acquiring the separate discrimination problems but did not demonstrate transitive inference, indicating that they had failed to develop or could not inferentially express the orderly organization of the stimulus elements. These findings strongly support the view that the hippocampus mediates a general declarative memory capacity in animals, as it does in humans.  
  Address Department of Psychology, Boston University, 64 Cummington Street, Boston, MA 02215, USA  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0027-8424 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:9192700 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 607  
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Author Snycerski, S.; Laraway, S.; Poling, A. url  openurl
  Title Response acquisition with immediate and delayed conditioned reinforcement Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication Behavioural Processes Abbreviated Journal Behav. Process.  
  Volume 68 Issue 1 Pages 1-11  
  Keywords Response acquisition; Conditioned reinforcement; Delayed reinforcement; Secondary reinforcement; Rats  
  Abstract (down) Groups comprising eight rats initially were exposed to response-independent water deliveries, then to conditions under which a lever-press response raised an empty dipper immediately or after a resetting delay of 15, 30, or 45 s. When their performance was compared to that of control animals using a 90% confidence level, six rats in the immediate-reinforcement group met the primary criterion for response acquisition during a single 6-h session; 4, 4, and 3 did so in the 15, 30, and 45 s delay groups, respectively. Similar evidence of acquisition was obtained when a 95% confidence level was used. With a 99% confidence level, however, evidence of acquisition was not compelling. Although these data appear to provide the first demonstration of response acquisition in the absence of handshaping or autoshaping under conditions where the putative reinforcer is both conditioned and delayed, they also demonstrate that whether response acquisition occurs depends, in part, on how it is defined.  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 3600  
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Author Rudy, J.W.; Iwens, J.; Best, P.J. openurl 
  Title Pairing novel exteroceptive cues and illness reduces illness-induced taste aversions Type Journal Article
  Year 1977 Publication Journal of Experimental Psychology. Animal Behavior Processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process  
  Volume 3 Issue 1 Pages 14-25  
  Keywords Animals; *Association; *Avoidance Learning; Awareness; Conditioning, Operant; *Cues; Drinking Behavior; Environment; Inhibition (Psychology); Lithium/poisoning; Male; Rats; Saccharin/pharmacology; *Taste  
  Abstract (down) Four experiments are reported that lead to the conclusion that pairing novel exteroceptive stimulation (placement into a black compartment) with a poison (lithium chloride) attenuates the development of an aversion to a taste (saccharin) subsequently paired with the poison. Such an attenuation effect occurs whether the exteroceptive cues are present or absent when the taste-poison pairing is administered. Interpretation and implications of this finding are discussed.  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0097-7403 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:845542 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2789  
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Author Beckers, T.; Miller, R.R.; De Houwer, J.; Urushihara, K. doi  openurl
  Title Reasoning rats: forward blocking in Pavlovian animal conditioning is sensitive to constraints of causal inference Type Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Journal of experimental psychology. General Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Gen  
  Volume 135 Issue 1 Pages 92-102  
  Keywords Animals; *Association Learning; *Cognition; *Conditioning, Classical; Cues; Fear; Female; Inhibition (Psychology); Male; Motivation; *Problem Solving; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley  
  Abstract (down) Forward blocking is one of the best-documented phenomena in Pavlovian animal conditioning. According to contemporary associative learning theories, forward blocking arises directly from the hardwired basic learning rules that govern the acquisition or expression of associations. Contrary to this view, here the authors demonstrate that blocking in rats is flexible and sensitive to constraints of causal inference, such as violation of additivity and ceiling considerations. This suggests that complex cognitive processes akin to causal inferential reasoning are involved in a well-established Pavlovian animal conditioning phenomenon commonly attributed to the operation of basic associative processes.  
  Address Department of Psychology, Binghamton University, State University of New York, NY, USA. tom.beckers@psy.kuleuven.be  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0096-3445 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:16478318 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 155  
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Author Blaisdell, A.P.; Sawa, K.; Leising, K.J.; Waldmann, M.R. doi  openurl
  Title Causal reasoning in rats Type Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Science (New York, N.Y.) Abbreviated Journal Science  
  Volume 311 Issue 5763 Pages 1020-1022  
  Keywords Animals; *Association Learning; Bayes Theorem; *Cognition; Comprehension; Forecasting; Male; Rats; Rats, Long-Evans  
  Abstract (down) Empirical research with nonhuman primates appears to support the view that causal reasoning is a key cognitive faculty that divides humans from animals. The claim is that animals approximate causal learning using associative processes. The present results cast doubt on that conclusion. Rats made causal inferences in a basic task that taps into core features of causal reasoning without requiring complex physical knowledge. They derived predictions of the outcomes of interventions after passive observational learning of different kinds of causal models. These competencies cannot be explained by current associative theories but are consistent with causal Bayes net theories.  
  Address Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. blaisdell@psych.ucla.edu  
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  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1095-9203 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:16484500 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 154  
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Author Etienne, A.S.; Maurer, R.; Seguinot, V. openurl 
  Title Path integration in mammals and its interaction with visual landmarks Type Journal Article
  Year 1996 Publication The Journal of Experimental Biology Abbreviated Journal J Exp Biol  
  Volume 199 Issue Pt 1 Pages 201-209  
  Keywords Animals; Cognition/physiology; Cricetinae; Gerbillinae; Humans; Locomotion/*physiology; Mammals/*physiology; Mesocricetus; Mice; Proprioception/physiology; Rats; Visual Pathways/*physiology; Visual Perception/*physiology  
  Abstract (down) During locomotion, mammals update their position with respect to a fixed point of reference, such as their point of departure, by processing inertial cues, proprioceptive feedback and stored motor commands generated during locomotion. This so-called path integration system (dead reckoning) allows the animal to return to its home, or to a familiar feeding place, even when external cues are absent or novel. However, without the use of external cues, the path integration process leads to rapid accumulation of errors involving both the direction and distance of the goal. Therefore, even nocturnal species such as hamsters and mice rely more on previously learned visual references than on the path integration system when the two types of information are in conflict. Recent studies investigate the extent to which path integration and familiar visual cues cooperate to optimize the navigational performance.  
  Address Laboratoire d'Ethologie, FPSE, Universite de Geneve, Carouge, Switzerland  
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  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0022-0949 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:8576691 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2758  
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Author Zentall, T.R.; Kaiser, D.H. doi  openurl
  Title Interval timing with gaps: gap ambiguity as an alternative to temporal decay Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process  
  Volume 31 Issue 4 Pages 484-486  
  Keywords Animals; Behavior, Animal; Discrimination (Psychology)/*physiology; Memory/*physiology; Rats; Time Perception/*physiology  
  Abstract (down) C. V. Buhusi, D. Perera, and W. H. Meck (2005) proposed a hypothesis of timing in rats to account for the results of experiments that have used the peak procedure with gaps. According to this hypothesis, the introduction of a gap causes the animal's memory for the pregap interval to passively decay (subjectively shorten) in direct proportion to the duration and salience of the gap. Thus, animals should pause with short, nonsalient gaps but should reset their clock with longer, salient gaps. The present authors suggest that the ambiguity of the gap (i.e., the similarity between the gap and the intertrial interval in both appearance and relative duration) causes the animal to actively reset the clock and prevents adequate assessments of the fate of timed intervals prior to the gap. Furthermore, when the intertrial interval is discriminable from the gap, the evidence suggests that timed intervals prior to the gap are not lost but are retained in memory.  
  Address Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA. zentall@uky.edu  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0097-7403 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:16248734 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 220  
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Author Domjan, M. openurl 
  Title Selective suppression of drinking during a limited period following aversive drug treatment in rats Type Journal Article
  Year 1977 Publication Journal of Experimental Psychology. Animal Behavior Processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process  
  Volume 3 Issue 1 Pages 66-76  
  Keywords Animals; *Avoidance Learning; Awareness; Conditioning, Operant; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Drinking Behavior/*drug effects; Lithium/*poisoning; Male; Osmolar Concentration; Rats; Saccharin/administration & dosage; *Taste; Time Factors  
  Abstract (down) Administration of lithium chloride disrupted the intake of flavored solutions but not water in rats. This intake suppression was directly related to the amount of lithium administered (Experiment 1), occurred with both palatable and unpalatable novel saccharin solutions (Experiment 2), but was only observed if subjects were tested starting less than 75 min. after lithium treatment (Experiment 3). Twenty-five daily exposures to saccharin did not attenuate the effect (Experiment 4). However, in saccharin-reared and vinegar-reared rats, lithium did not disrupt consumption of the solutions these subjects had access to throughout life, even though suppressions of intake were observed when these subjects were tested with novel flavors (Experiment 5). The selective disruption of drinking is interpreted as a novelty-dependent sensitization reaction to the discomfort of aversive drug administration.  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0097-7403 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:845544 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2788  
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