Assessing working and reference memory in golden hamsters (mesocricetus auratus): a spatial-memory task

Abstract

Reference and working memory in foragers are supposedly a foremost processes mechanism to gain energy while searching for food. These processes allows the animal to identify invariable arrangements in the environment indicating rich and lean places containing food, and those places that the organism itself has depleted. In this experiment, four hamsters hoarded for food in an enclosure that continually provided food in some places, but never offered food in one particular location of the enclosure. Hamsters should identify the non-baited place in order leave it out and avoid the previously visited patches where the food was depleted. Results showed that subjects omitted select the non-baited location, increasing systematically this trend throughout the sessions.