Whether a rat prefers to eat food from a bowl other rats have already visited, or identical food from a new, clean bowl.Whether a young rat prefers an adult male or an adult female.Whether a male rat prefers a strange or familiar female.Whether a female rat in heat prefers one male rat or another.Whether a rat prefers familiar-smelling bedding to fresh, unsoiled bedding.Whether a rat prefers chocolate cake to peas.The rat is allowed to explore the whole maze.Then the rat is placed in the start location, and the researcherrecords the rat's choice: for example, the amount of time the ratspends at the end of each arm over a period of time (say, 5 minutes).You can ask the rat all sorts of questions, like: A different reward is placed in each arm of the maze.Rewards can be anything: different foods, another rat in a smallcage, shelter, an odor. Preference: T-mazes are used to ask rats to choose betweentwo options. How many trials does ittake before the rat chooses the correct arm most of the time?Further, if the reward is removed, and the rat is run through themaze multiple times, for how many trials does the rat continue toprefer the now empty arm? If the reward is replaced, how many trialsdoes it take for the rat to re-establish a preference for thatarm? Learning: T-mazes are also used to study simple learning.You can place a reward at the end of one of the arms, then run ahungry rat through the maze multiple times. The rat should learn to choose the arm that was not visitedon the previous trial. Do ratsalternate between left and right arms? You can also train rats toalternate by rewarding first one arm, then the other, over manytrials. With no rewardin either arm, does a rat prefer to go right or left?Īlternation: You can study natural alternation by running arat in a T-maze over multiple trials with no reward. Side preferences: The simplest question one can ask in aT-maze is whether a rat has a natural side preference. What kinds of questions can you answer with a T-maze? The rat walks foward and choosesthe left or right arm of the maze. A reward may be placed in one arm of the maze, or differentrewards may be placed in each arm. The test animal starts at the base ofthe T.
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