MECHANISMS OF SPATIAL MEMORY

The long term objective of the proposed research is concerned with
the structure and organization of spatial memory. Major emphasis
is placed on developing more detailed understanding of how spatial
information is encoded and retained, and how remembered information
is retrieved and used to guide behavior. This objective will be
approached through the detailed study of Clark's nutcrackers.
These birds harvest and store thousands of pine seeds that will be
eaten months later. Detailed laboratory studies have demonstrated
that spatial memory is used to find these seeds. The memory
abilities of these birds will be studied with several different
experimental procedures, including radial-maze-analogs, operant
matching-to-sample and list learning. In addition, the abilities
of some closely related species will also be studied in order to
begin to evaluate the relation between memory and evolution. By
studying memory in this species, and some closely related species,
it is expected that considerable general information about spatial
memory will result.