The moving fire hydrant experiment: Movement of objects to a new location reelicits marking in rats

Three experiments were carried out to investigate the influence of object r elocation on object marking in an open field by hooded and albino rats. Obj ect marking was reelicited when an object was moved to a new location in th e second half of an open field test. Control conditions revealed that an ob ject briefly moved and returned to the original location elicited no more m arking than a stationary object, The higher level of marking of the relocat ed object suggests that object marking may provide an index of spatial know ledge. The implication of spatial knowledge in controlling marking behavior is congruent with observations that rats with hippocampal damage show incr eased marking. (C) 2001 Academic Press.