Figure 1

Tolman’s spatial learning setup. (A) During pre-training, rats entered into a circular arena passing by A and B. Once in the arena, the only possible path is to follow C, a pathway with 18 inches walls that obstructed the rat’s vision. Following the path from D to G (surrounded by transparent walls), the rat’s goal, G, was a feeding box. A light was placed in such a way that the path from D to G was illuminated. The red line indicates the only path possible for the rat. (B) Following training in maze (A), rats were tested in the sunburst (maze B), the same location as during training but now equipped with 18 possible paths directly opening from the circular arena. During this test, the original training path was blocked. Out of the 18 possible arms (choices), only one, the sixth arm, pointed at the specific position of the feeding box. Out of 56 previously trained rats, 20 rats chose this shortest route, indicated by red. Figure modified from Tolman et al. (1946).