Effects of response strategy and retention interval on performance of Clark's nutcrackers in a radial maze analogue.
Two groups of Clark's nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana) were trained to use either a stay or shift response strategy in a radial maze analogue. Each trial had a preretention stage, a retention interval, and a postretention test. In Experiment 1, acquisition with a 5-min retention interval was studied. Response strategy did not affect the rate at which the task was learned. Performance following longer retention intervals was tested in Experiments 2-4. Changes in retention intervals were presented in trial blocks of increasing duration in Experiment 2 and were randomly presented between trials in Experiment 3. Experiment 4 extended the retention interval to 24 hr. No difference in performance was found between the 2 groups in any of these experiments. These results suggest a flexible relationship between spatial memory and response requirement in food-hoarding birds for at least 1 spatial memory task.
School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln 68588-0118.
D J
DJ
Olson
A C
AC
Kamil
R P
RP
Balda
D000818:Animals; D001070:Appetitive Behavior; D001717:Birds; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D009949:Orientation; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D012931:Social Environment