Radial Arm Maze - Uses

Uses

The maze has since been used extensively by researchers interested in studying the spatial learning and spatial memory of animals. For example, Olton and colleagues found that performance declined only slightly to 82% novel entries in the first 17 entries on a 17-arm maze. Roberts found no decline in the percentage of correct choices as the number of arms on a radial maze were increased from 8 to 16 and then to 24. Cole and Chappell-Stephenson, using a radial maze with food locations ranging from 8 to 48, estimated the limit of spatial memory in rats to be between 24 and 32 locations.

In one experiment utilizing the radial arm maze, it was shown that spatial relations among hidden target sites control spatial decisions that rats make and are unrelated to visual or perceptual cues that are related to certain locations.

In mice, large differences in learning ability exist among different inbred strains. These differences appear to be correlated with the size of a part of the hippocampal mossy fiber projection.

The radial arm maze has shown to be practicable to investigate how drugs affect memory performance. It has also been shown to be useful in distinguishing the cognitive effects of an array of toxicants.