Temporal order discrimination in rats was analyzed using a radial maze. The task consisted of a study phase in which two to five items (arms) were presented sequentially and, after a delay, a test phase in which two of these were simultaneously presented and the rat had to choose the arm presented earlier in the study phase. Acquisition of the task was better as the number of items in the study phase increased when the total study phase length was constant (4 min). Interval length between items in the study phase did not affect the acquisition regardless of the number of items. Additionally, discrimination performance was better when two items with more intervening items in the study phase (temporal lag) were used for the test. However, this tendency was obtained only when the last item of the study phase was included in the test pair. Results suggest that the number of items presented in the sequence, but not interval length between items, is an important factor in temporal order memory, and that a larger number of intervening items, as well as containing the last item in the study phase, contributes to the occurrence of the temporal lag effect.Temporal order memory is defined as memory for the order of experienced events, and can be demonstrated by the ability to recall the sequence of past experienced events or to discriminate which event occurred more previously (or recently) than another event (Hannesson et al. 2004a,b). It has been suggested that animals can remember the order of experienced events. Using a radial maze, Chiba et al. (1994) showed that rats can remember the temporal order of eight spatial locations previously visited. They also showed a temporal lag effect in rats. Temporal lag is defined as the number of intervening items, not number of intervening delays, in the study phase between two items that will be presented in the test phase. A phenomenon that performance is better when subjects discriminate temporally distant items (larger lag) compared with temporally adjacent items (smaller lag) is termed a temporal lag effect. In rodents studies, temporal lag effect has been observed in temporal order memory of spatial locations