Abstract
Hippocampectomized rats which were confined for 50 min in their first chosen arm in a T-maze spontaneously alternated, whereas those confined for 50 sec perseverated choices on the second trial, and a third group which had 50-sec maze arm exposure followed by 50-min cage confinement prior to the second trial chose randomly. Intact rats and rats with neocortical lesions behaved identically, spontaneously alternating in all three conditions but with markedly reduced alternation with cage confinement. This experiment corroborated the finding of Kirkby et al (1967), but further shows that it is prolonged exposure to stimuli rather than a longer intertrial interval which produces spontaneous alternation in hippocampectomized rats.
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This work was supported by a research training grant from the Science Research Council, and was submitted to the University of Oxford in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a doctoral degree. I am grateful to Dr. A. Cowey for his help and advice during this experiment.
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Stevens, R. Effects of duration of sensory input and intertrial interval on spontaneous alternation in rats with hippocampal lesions. Psychobiology 1, 41–44 (1973). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03326866
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03326866