The role of exploratory experience in a shortcut task by golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus)

Abstract

The aim of this experiment was to examine the role of exploratory experience on the ability to take a shortcut. In the first phase, two subspaces, X and Y, each consisting of two baited tables related by a runway, were separately explored by hamsters. In the second phase, the experimental group explored a connecting pathway between X and Y. The animals were finally submitted to a shortcut test during 2 days: in this test, in order to go from X to Y, they could choose between the longer familiar pathway and two shorter new pathways. In comparison with a control group, which did not undergo the second phase, the experimental group displayed a significant preference for the shortcut that did not cross the linking path with which they had had experience or either of the two distant portions whose linkage the animals had experienced. These results suggest that, in this simple situation, additional experience of a linking element between two separated subspaces has a beneficial effect on the setting up of spatial relationships between them, and perhaps on. the representation of the whole situation.Spatial problem-solving, shorteut, and detour tasks have been widely used to test the cognitive abilities of several species of mammals (e.g., rats-Maier, 1929rats-Maier, , 1932Tolman & Honzik, 1930; Tolman, Ritchie, & Kalish, 1946;Stahl & Ellen, 1974; hamsters-Chapuis & Lavergne, 1980; monkeys-Kohler, 1925;Menzel, 1973; catsPoucet, Thinus-Blanc, & Chapuis, 1983; dogs-Chapuis, Thinus-Blanc, & Poucet, 1983; Chapuis & Varlet, 1987). The animals' success in these tasks appears to be highly related to a sudden understanding of some relationship between different elements of the problem. This "insight" can be defined as a reorganization of previously processed information, leading to an original solution (for example, the use of a path never experienced before). Thus, the preliminary investigatory phase during which information is gathered is crucial. Using a classical spatial problemsolving task (Maier's three-table task), Ellen, Parko, Wages, Doherty, and Herrmann (1982), Hemnann, Bahr, Bremmer, and Ellen (1982), and Stahl and Ellen (1974 have shown in rats that exploration is indeed a necessary factor in the achievement of a solution. More generally, exploratory behavior appears to be basic to the setting up of spatial relationships. According to Tolman (1948) and O' Keefe and Nadel (1978), the function of exploratory activity is to constitute new cognitive maps or to update existing maps. This updating function of exploration has been very simply demonstrated in gerbils (Cheal, 1978;Wilz & Bolton, 1971) and in hamsters (Poucet, Durup, Chapuis, & Thinus-Blanc, 1986; Thinus-Blanc, in press). After habituation of exploration in an open field containing objects, the rearrangement of familiar objects elicitsThe authors are grateful to T. Herrmann (Guelph, Ontario) and to the late P. Ellen (Atlanta, Georgia) for their helpful comments on the manuscript. The authors' address is: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Labo...

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