Rogers and Kesner

Aim

To determine the role of acetylcholine in the formation of spatial memory.

What was the sample in Rogers and Kesner (2003)?

30 rats.

What maze was used in Rogers and Kesner (2003)?

The Hebb-Williams maze.

How were the rats prepared for the maze in Rogers and Kesner (2003)?

They acclimated by having food placed in one corner.

What were the two experimental conditions in Rogers and Kesner (2003)?

Injected with scopolamine or with a saline solution.

What does scopolamine do?

It blocks acetylcholine receptor sites and inhibits any response.

What was the purpose of the saline solution in Rogers and Kesner (2003)?

It was a placebo injection into the hippocampus.

How was encoding of memory assessed in Rogers and Kesner (2003)?

By comparing the average number of errors on the first five trials of day 1 to the last five trials of day 1.

How was retrieval of memory assessed in Rogers and Kesner (2003)?

By comparing the average number of errors on the first five trials of day 2 to the last five trials of day 1.

What were the results of Rogers and Kesner (2003) for encoding?

The scopolamine group took longer and made more mistakes in learning the maze.

What were the results of Rogers and Kesner (2003) for retrieval?

Retrieval of memories was not affected.

What was the conclusion of Rogers and Kesner (2003)?

Acetylcholine may play an important role in the consolidation of spatial memories.

What is one strength of Rogers and Kesner (2003)?

High internal validity due to the controlled experiment and placebo condition reducing confounding variables.

What is one limitation of Rogers and Kesner (2003)?

Low generalisability as the sample consisted of animals, making it hard to generalise to humans.