Finding a goal on dry land and in the water: differential effects of disorientation on spatial learning

Two previous studies, Martin et al. (J. Exp. Psychol. Anim. Behav. Process. 23 (1997) 183) and Dudchenko et al. (J. Exp. Psychol. Anim. Behav. Process . 23 (1997) 194), report that, compared to non-disoriented controls, rats d isoriented before testing were disrupted in their ability to learn the loca tion of a goal on a dry radial-arm maze task, but that both groups learned at the same rate in the Morris water maze. However, the radial-arm maze tas k was much more difficult than the water maze. In the current set of experi ments, we examined the performance of control and disoriented rats on more comparable dry land and water maze tasks. Compared to non-disoriented rats, rats that were disoriented before testing were significantly impaired in l ocating a goal in a circular dry arena, but not a water tank. The results c onstrain theoretical explanations for the differential effects of disorient ation on different spatial tasks. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.