Foraging experience affects gerbils' (Meriones unguiculatus) radial arm maze performance.

Tested D. S. Olton's (1978) hypothesis that the gerbil's ability to easily learn the radial maze task is due to a natural "win-shift" foraging strategy, a tendency to avoid recently visited food sites. 25 Mongolian gerbils at weaning were put in 1 of 2 environments—one in which the source of food and water was always located in the same place and the other in which the source changed location from day to day—until they were 60 days of age. They then were tested in a 17-arm radial maze. Ss reared in the environment with variable locations of food and water learned the maze task more quickly than Ss reared in the other environment. Results are consistent with Olton's hypothesis. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)