page_title: Spatial memory
section_title: Radial arm maze
hierarchical_section_title: Spatial memory / Measurement / Radial arm maze
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of a simple eight-arm radial maze with side walls to prevent interarm traverses beyond the central platform
context_page_description: In cognitive psychology and neuroscience, spatial memory is a form of memory responsible for the recording of information about one's environment and spatial orientation. For example, a person's spatial memory is required in order to navigate around a familiar city, just as a rat's spatial memory is needed to learn the location of food at the end of a maze. It is often argued that in both humans and animals, spatial memories are summarized as a cognitive map.
  Spatial memory has representations within working, short-term memory and long-term memory. Research indicates that there are specific areas of the brain associated with spatial memory. Many methods are used for measuring spatial memory in children, adults, and animals.
context_section_description: First pioneered by Olton and Samuelson in 1976, the radial arm maze is designed to test the spatial memory capabilities of rats. Mazes are typically designed with a centre platform and a varying number of arms branching off with food placed at the ends. The arms are usually shielded from each other in some way but not to the extent that external cues cannot be used as reference points.
  In most cases, the rat is placed in the center of the maze and needs to explore each arm individually to retrieve food while simultaneously remembering which arms it has already pursued. The maze is set up so the rat is forced to return to the center of the maze before pursuing another arm. Measures are usually taken to prevent the rat from using its olfactory senses to navigate such as placing extra food throughout the bottom of the maze.
caption: Simple Radial Maze
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