Place versus response learning in rats.

In previous research designed to test whether place learning or response learning proceeds more quickly and better in rats, place has not been defined unambiguously when direction has been controlled by moving an apparatus around in the test room (Blodgett, McCutchan, & Mathews, 1949; Skinner et al., 2003). In Experiment 1, we compared place and response learning while controlling direction in a static apparatus, thus making the meaning of place unambiguous. The performance of rats that had to make different turns to find food in a particular place and rats that had to always make the same turn to find food in two different places did not differ. In Experiment 2, visual cues were made equally discriminable for place and response learners in a static apparatus. Place learners still failed to outperform response learners, but there was evidence that response biases interfered more with place than with response learning. The results are discussed with reference to the historical debate that generated the original research and also in terms of morecontemporary spatial-learning issues in rats.