Human performance with a seventeen-arm radial maze analog.
Results using radial mazes suggest rats may have a greater short-term memory (STM) capacity than the human "magical number seven." We examined spatial STM in humans using a radial maze analog drawn on paper. Subjects were instructed to lift, in "random" order, each of 17 cardboard flaps arranged radially around a center point. Fifteen undergraduate subjects, tested seven trials a day on 2 consecutive days, averaged 15.4 correct choices per trial. Thus, humans perform equally well on a 17-arm radial maze analog as rats do on a 17-arm radial maze, suggesting comparable spatial STM capacities, and perhaps homologous brain substrates for these tasks, in these two species.
O'Connor
R C
RC
Lake Forest College, IL 60045.
Glassman
R B
RB
D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D051381:Rats; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D013028:Space Perception