Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior

Living Edition
| Editors: Jennifer Vonk, Todd Shackelford

Rodentia Navigation

  • Victoria D. ChamizoEmail author
  • Teresa Rodrigo
Living reference work entry
First Online:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_804-1
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Synonyms

Acquisition of knowledge about spatial location; Spatial learning

Definition

Rodentia navigation refers to how rodents find their way about (i.e., to find food or water, or to return home), to the many strategies and mechanisms underlying spatially guided behavior. Rodents have a varied range of strategies, some innate and others learned, that help them to navigate, and when faced with a specific spatial task, the one they choose will depend both on their sensorial capacities and on the nature of the stimuli that are available (for reviews see Rodrigo 2002; Tommasi et al. 2012).

Background

Rodents can use different navigational strategies to locate a goal. Moreover, they can use a given strategy in a specific situation and under different conditions, use another one. The ability to find their way round their world is seen as of critical adaptive significance. Rodents can navigate using information based on conspecifics (social influences), on their own movement (i.e., dead...

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Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, Institute of NeurosciencesUniversitat de BarcelonaBarcelonaSpain
  2. 2.CCiTUB, Animal Research Unit of PsychologyUniversitat de BarcelonaBarcelonaSpain

Section editors and affiliations

  • Kenneth Leising
    • 1
  1. 1.Texas Christian UniversityForth WorthUSA