Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Outputs (43)

The well‐worn route revisited: Striatal and hippocampal system contributions to familiar route navigation (2024)
Journal Article
Buckley, M., McGregor, A., Ihssen, N., Austen, J., Thurlbeck, S., Smith, S. P., Heinecke, A., & Lew, A. R. (2024). The well‐worn route revisited: Striatal and hippocampal system contributions to familiar route navigation. Hippocampus, 34(7), 310-326. https://doi.org/10.1002/hipo.23607

Classic research has shown a division in the neuroanatomical structures that support flexible (e.g., short‐cutting) and habitual (e.g., familiar route following) navigational behavior, with hippocampal–caudate systems associated with the former and p... Read More about The well‐worn route revisited: Striatal and hippocampal system contributions to familiar route navigation.

Precision in spatial working memory examined with mouse pointing (2023)
Journal Article
McAteer, S. M., McAteer, S. M., McGregor, A., Smith, D. T., & Smith, D. T. (2024). Precision in spatial working memory examined with mouse pointing. Vision Research, 215, Article 108343. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2023.108343

The capacity of visuospatial working memory (VSWM) is limited. However, there is continued debate surrounding the nature of this capacity limitation. The resource model (Bays et al., 2009) proposes that VSWM capacity is limited by the precision with... Read More about Precision in spatial working memory examined with mouse pointing.

Dynamic resource allocation in spatial working memory during full and partial report tasks (2023)
Journal Article
McAteer, S. M., Ablott, E., McGregor, A., & Smith, D. T. (2023). Dynamic resource allocation in spatial working memory during full and partial report tasks. Journal of Vision, 23(2), Article 10. https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.23.2.10

Serial position effects are well-documented in working memory literature. Studies of spatial short-term memory that rely on binary response; full report tasks tend to report stronger primacy than recency effects. In contrast, studies that utilize a c... Read More about Dynamic resource allocation in spatial working memory during full and partial report tasks.

Frequency matters: how changes in hippocampal theta frequency can influence temporal coding, anxiety-reduction, and memory (2023)
Journal Article
Hines, M., Poulter, S., Douchamps, V., Pibiri, F., McGregor, A., & Lever, C. (2023). Frequency matters: how changes in hippocampal theta frequency can influence temporal coding, anxiety-reduction, and memory. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 16, https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2022.998116

Hippocampal theta frequency is a somewhat neglected topic relative to theta power, phase, coherence, and cross-frequency coupling. Accordingly, here we review and present new data on variation in hippocampal theta frequency, focusing on functional as... Read More about Frequency matters: how changes in hippocampal theta frequency can influence temporal coding, anxiety-reduction, and memory.

Oculomotor rehearsal in visuospatial working memory (2022)
Journal Article
McAteer, S. M., McGregor, A., & Smith, D. T. (2023). Oculomotor rehearsal in visuospatial working memory. Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics, 85(1), 261-275. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-022-02601-4

The neural and cognitive mechanisms of spatial working memory are tightly coupled with the systems that control eye movements, but the precise nature of this coupling is not well understood. It has been argued that the oculomotor system is selectivel... Read More about Oculomotor rehearsal in visuospatial working memory.

The spatial layout of doorways and environmental boundaries shape the content of event memories (2022)
Journal Article
Buckley, M. G., Myles, L. A., Easton, A., & McGregor, A. (2022). The spatial layout of doorways and environmental boundaries shape the content of event memories. Cognition, 225, Article 105091. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105091

Physical boundaries in our environment have been observed to define separate events in episodic memory. To date, however, there is little evidence that the spatial properties of boundaries exert any control over event memories. To examine this possib... Read More about The spatial layout of doorways and environmental boundaries shape the content of event memories.

The effects of spatial stability and cue type on spatial learning: Implications for theories of parallel memory systems (2021)
Journal Article
Buckley, M. G., Austen, J. M., Myles, L. A., Smith, S., Ihssen, N., Lew, A. R., & McGregor, A. (2021). The effects of spatial stability and cue type on spatial learning: Implications for theories of parallel memory systems. Cognition, 214, Article 104802. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104802

Some theories of spatial learning predict that associative rules apply under only limited circumstances. For example, learning based on a boundary has been claimed to be immune to cue competition effects because boundary information is the basis for... Read More about The effects of spatial stability and cue type on spatial learning: Implications for theories of parallel memory systems.

Uncertainty and predictiveness modulate attention in human predictive learning (2020)
Journal Article
Chao, C., McGregor, A., & Sanderson, D. J. (2021). Uncertainty and predictiveness modulate attention in human predictive learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 150(6), 1177-1202. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000991

Attention determines which cues receive processing and are learned about. Learning, however, leads to attentional biases. In the study of animal learning, in some circumstances, cues that have been previously predictive of their consequences are subs... Read More about Uncertainty and predictiveness modulate attention in human predictive learning.

Distinct and combined responses to environmental geometry and features in a working-memory reorientation task in rats and chicks (2020)
Journal Article
Lee, S. A., Austen, J. M., Sovrano, V. A., Vallortigara, G., McGregor, A., & Lever, C. (2020). Distinct and combined responses to environmental geometry and features in a working-memory reorientation task in rats and chicks. Scientific Reports, 10(1), Article 7508. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64366-w

The original provocative formulation of the ‘geometric module’ hypothesis was based on a working-memory task in rats which suggested that spontaneous reorientation behavior is based solely on the environmental geometry and is impervious to featural c... Read More about Distinct and combined responses to environmental geometry and features in a working-memory reorientation task in rats and chicks.

Spontaneous object-location memory based on environmental geometry is impaired by both hippocampal and dorsolateral striatal lesions (2020)
Journal Article
Poulter, S. L., Kosaki, Y., Sanderson, D. J., & McGregor, A. (2020). Spontaneous object-location memory based on environmental geometry is impaired by both hippocampal and dorsolateral striatal lesions. Brain and Neuroscience Advances, 4, https://doi.org/10.1177/2398212820972599

We examined the role of the hippocampus and the dorsolateral striatum in the representation of environmental geometry using a spontaneous object recognition procedure. Rats were placed in a kite-shaped arena and allowed to explore two distinctive obj... Read More about Spontaneous object-location memory based on environmental geometry is impaired by both hippocampal and dorsolateral striatal lesions.

En route to delineating hippocampal roles in spatial learning (2019)
Journal Article
Poulter, S., Austen, J. M., Kosaki, Y., Dachtler, J., Lever, C., & McGregor, A. (2019). En route to delineating hippocampal roles in spatial learning. Behavioural Brain Research, 369, Article 111936. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2019.111936

The precise role played by the hippocampus in spatial learning tasks, such as the Morris Water Maze (MWM), is not fully understood. One theory is that the hippocampus is not required for ‘knowing where’ but rather is crucial in ‘getting there’. To ex... Read More about En route to delineating hippocampal roles in spatial learning.

Walking through doorways differentially affects recall and familiarity (2018)
Journal Article
Seel, S., Easton, A., McGregor, A., Buckley, M., & Eacott, M. (2019). Walking through doorways differentially affects recall and familiarity. British Journal of Psychology, 110(1), 173-184. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12343

Previous research has reported that walking through a doorway to a new location makes memory for objects and events experienced in the previous location less accurate. This effect, termed the location updating effect, has been used to suggest that lo... Read More about Walking through doorways differentially affects recall and familiarity.

The response strategy and the place strategy in a plus-maze have different sensitivities to devaluation of expected outcome (2018)
Journal Article
Kosaki, Y., Pearce, J., & McGregor, A. (2018). The response strategy and the place strategy in a plus-maze have different sensitivities to devaluation of expected outcome. Hippocampus, 28(7), 484-496. https://doi.org/10.1002/hipo.22847

Previous studies have suggested that spatial navigation can be achieved with at least two distinct learning processes, involving either cognitive map‐like representations of the local environment, referred to as the “place strategy”, or simple stimul... Read More about The response strategy and the place strategy in a plus-maze have different sensitivities to devaluation of expected outcome.

Geometric Module. (2017)
Book Chapter
McGregor, A. (2017). Geometric Module. In J. Vonk, & T. Shackleford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_895-1

The concept of cognitive modularity is crucial to our understanding of the architecture of the mind. One view is that psychological processes such as learning, perception, memory, and judgment are domain general such that they are able to interact wi... Read More about Geometric Module..

The relation between spatial and nonspatial learning. (2016)
Book Chapter
McGregor, A. (2016). The relation between spatial and nonspatial learning. In R. Murphy, & R. Honey (Eds.), The Wiley Handbook on the Cognitive Neuroscience of Learning (313-347). John Wiley and Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118650813.ch13

This chapter reviews the contents of spatial learning and the conditions under which spatial learning occurs. There is evidence for both S‐R and S‐S associations, with S‐S associations enabling learning based on the relations among stimuli and a repr... Read More about The relation between spatial and nonspatial learning..

Dorsolateral striatal lesions impair navigation based on landmark-goal vectors but facilitate spatial learning based on a "cognitive map" (2015)
Journal Article
Kosaki, Y., Poulter, S., Austen, J., & McGregor, A. (2015). Dorsolateral striatal lesions impair navigation based on landmark-goal vectors but facilitate spatial learning based on a "cognitive map". Learning & Memory, 22(3), 179-191. https://doi.org/10.1101/lm.037077.114

In three experiments, the nature of the interaction between multiple memory systems in rats solving a variation of a spatial task in the water maze was investigated. Throughout training rats were able to find a submerged platform at a fixed distance... Read More about Dorsolateral striatal lesions impair navigation based on landmark-goal vectors but facilitate spatial learning based on a "cognitive map".

Revaluation of geometric cues reduces landmark discrimination via within-compound associations (2014)
Journal Article
Austen, J., & McGregor, A. (2014). Revaluation of geometric cues reduces landmark discrimination via within-compound associations. Learning & Behavior, 42(4), 330-336. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13420-014-0150-1

Rats were trained in a triangular water maze in which a compound of geometric and landmark cues indicated the position of a submerged platform. Rats that then underwent revaluation of the geometric cues in the absence of the landmarks subsequently fa... Read More about Revaluation of geometric cues reduces landmark discrimination via within-compound associations.

Within-compound associations explain potentiation and failure to overshadow learning based on geometry by discrete landmarks (2013)
Journal Article
Austen, J., Kosaki, Y., & McGregor, A. (2013). Within-compound associations explain potentiation and failure to overshadow learning based on geometry by discrete landmarks. Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes, 39(3), 259-272. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032525

In three experiments, rats were trained to locate a submerged platform in one of the base corners of a triangular arena above each of which was suspended one of two distinctive landmarks. In Experiment 1, it was established that these landmarks diffe... Read More about Within-compound associations explain potentiation and failure to overshadow learning based on geometry by discrete landmarks.

Overshadowing of geometry learning by discrete landmarks in the water maze: Effects of relative salience and relative validity of competing cues (2013)
Journal Article
Kosaki, Y., Austen, J., & McGregor, A. (2013). Overshadowing of geometry learning by discrete landmarks in the water maze: Effects of relative salience and relative validity of competing cues. Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes, 39(2), 126-139. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031199

The effects of stimulus salience and cue validity in the overshadowing of geometric features of an enclosed arena by discrete landmarks were investigated in rats using the water maze paradigm. Experiment 1 established that in a rhomboid-shaped arena,... Read More about Overshadowing of geometry learning by discrete landmarks in the water maze: Effects of relative salience and relative validity of competing cues.

Transfer of spatial search between environments in human adults and young children (Homo sapiens): implications for representation of local geometry by spatial systems (2013)
Journal Article
Lew, A., Usherwood, B., Fragkioudaki, F., Koukoumi, V., Smith, S., Austen, J., & McGregor, A. (2014). Transfer of spatial search between environments in human adults and young children (Homo sapiens): implications for representation of local geometry by spatial systems. Developmental Psychobiology, 56(3), 421-434. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.21109

Whether animals represent environmental geometry in a global and/or local way has been the subject of recent debate. We applied a transfer of search paradigm between rectangular- and kite-shaped arenas to examine the performance of human adults (usin... Read More about Transfer of spatial search between environments in human adults and young children (Homo sapiens): implications for representation of local geometry by spatial systems.

Clever crows or unbalanced birds? (2013)
Journal Article
Dymond, S., Haselgrove, M., & McGregor, A. (2013). Clever crows or unbalanced birds?. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(5), Article E336. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1218931110

Taylor et al. claimed that New Caledonian crows are capable of reasoning about “hidden causal agents.” Their recorded increases in hide inspections and abandoned trials in the unknown causal agent (UCA) condition relative to the human causal agent (H... Read More about Clever crows or unbalanced birds?.

Spontaneous object recognition memory is maintained following transformation of global geometric properties (2013)
Journal Article
Poulter, S., Kosaki, Y., Easton, A., & McGregor, A. (2013). Spontaneous object recognition memory is maintained following transformation of global geometric properties. Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes, 39(1), 93-98. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030698

Studies of spontaneous behavior to assess memory are widespread, but often the relationships of objects to contexts and spatial locations are poorly defined. We examined whether object-location memory was maintained following global, but not local, c... Read More about Spontaneous object recognition memory is maintained following transformation of global geometric properties.

Gender-based navigation stereotype improves men’s search for a hidden goal (2012)
Journal Article
Rosenthal, H., Norman, L., Smith, S., & McGregor, A. (2012). Gender-based navigation stereotype improves men’s search for a hidden goal. Sex Roles, 67(11-12), 682-695. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-012-0205-8

While a general stereotype exists that men are better at navigating than women, experimental evidence indicates that men and women differ in their use of spatial strategies, and this preference determines gender-differences. When both environmental g... Read More about Gender-based navigation stereotype improves men’s search for a hidden goal.

Pigeons and Doves (2010)
Book Chapter
McGregor, A., & Haselgrove, M. (2010). Pigeons and Doves. In R. Hubrecht (Ed.), The UFAW Handbook on the Care and Management of Laboratory Animals (686-697). (8th ed). Blackwell

Absence of overshadowing between a landmark and geometric cues in a distinctively shaped environment: A test of Miller and Shettleworth (2007) (2009)
Journal Article
McGregor, A., Horne, M., Esber, G., & Pearce, J. (2009). Absence of overshadowing between a landmark and geometric cues in a distinctively shaped environment: A test of Miller and Shettleworth (2007). Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes, 35(3), 357-370. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014536

Rats in the first 2 experiments, which were designed to test predictions from a model of spatial learning by N. Y. Miller and S. J. Shettleworth (2007), had to escape from a triangular pool by swimming to a submerged platform in a geometrically uniqu... Read More about Absence of overshadowing between a landmark and geometric cues in a distinctively shaped environment: A test of Miller and Shettleworth (2007).

Impaired processing of local geometric features during navigation in a water maze following hippocampal lesions in rats (2007)
Journal Article
Jones, P., Pearce, J., Davies, V., Good, M., & McGregor, A. (2007). Impaired processing of local geometric features during navigation in a water maze following hippocampal lesions in rats. Behavioral Neuroscience, 121(6), 1258-1271. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7044.121.6.1258

Hippocampal damage impairs navigation with respect to information provided by the shape of an arena. Recent evidence has suggested that normal rats use local geometric information, as opposed to a global geometric representation, to navigate to a cor... Read More about Impaired processing of local geometric features during navigation in a water maze following hippocampal lesions in rats.

The discrimination of natural movement by budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulates) and pigeons (Columba livia). (2007)
Journal Article
Mui, R., Haselgrove, M., McGregor, A., Futter, J., Heyes, C., & Pearce, J. (2007). The discrimination of natural movement by budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulates) and pigeons (Columba livia). Journal of experimental psychology, 33(4), 371-380. https://doi.org/10.1037/0097-7403.33.4.371

Three experiments examined the ability of birds to discriminate between the actions of walking forwards and backwards as demonstrated by video clips of a human walking a dog. Experiment 1 revealed that budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulates) could disc... Read More about The discrimination of natural movement by budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulates) and pigeons (Columba livia)..

Context- but not familiarity-dependent forms of object recognition are impaired following excitotoxic hippocampal lesions in rats (2007)
Journal Article
Good, M., Barnes, P., Staal, V., McGregor, A., & Honey, R. (2007). Context- but not familiarity-dependent forms of object recognition are impaired following excitotoxic hippocampal lesions in rats. Behavioral Neuroscience, 121(1), 218-223. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7044.121.1.218

Dual-process models of recognition memory in animals propose that recognition memory is supported by two independent processes that reflect the operation of distinct brain structures: a familiarity process that operates independently of the hippocamp... Read More about Context- but not familiarity-dependent forms of object recognition are impaired following excitotoxic hippocampal lesions in rats.

Blind imitation in pigeons (Columba livia) (2006)
Journal Article
McGregor, A., Saggerson, A., Pearce, J., & Heyes, C. (2006). Blind imitation in pigeons (Columba livia). Animal Behaviour, 72(2), 287-296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2005.10.026

Pigeons that had been trained with a food reward both to peck at and to step on a horizontal plate were allowed to observe a conspecific demonstrator pecking at or stepping on the plate before a test in which the observers were not rewarded for eithe... Read More about Blind imitation in pigeons (Columba livia).

Potentiation, overshadowing and blocking of spatial learning based on the shape of the environment (2006)
Journal Article
Pearce, J., Graham, M., Good, M., Jones, P., & McGregor, A. (2006). Potentiation, overshadowing and blocking of spatial learning based on the shape of the environment. Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes, 32(3), 201-214. https://doi.org/10.1037/0097-7403.32.3.201

Rats were trained in Experiment 1 to find a submerged platform in 1 corner of either a rectangular or a kite-shaped pool. When the walls creating this corner were a different color than the opposite walls, then learning about the shape of the pool wa... Read More about Potentiation, overshadowing and blocking of spatial learning based on the shape of the environment.

Further evidence that rats rely on local rather than global spatial information to locate a hidden goal: Reply to Cheng & Gallistel (2005) (2006)
Journal Article
McGregor, A., Jones, P., Good, M., & Pearce, J. (2006). Further evidence that rats rely on local rather than global spatial information to locate a hidden goal: Reply to Cheng & Gallistel (2005). Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes, 32(3), 314-321. https://doi.org/10.1037/0097-7403.32.3.314

Naive male Hooded Lister rats (Rattus norvegicus) were required to find a submerged platform in a right-angled corner between a long and a short wall of a pool in the shape of an irregular pentagon. Tests in a rectangular pool revealed a preference f... Read More about Further evidence that rats rely on local rather than global spatial information to locate a hidden goal: Reply to Cheng & Gallistel (2005).

Spatial learning based on the shape of the environment is influenced by properties of the objects forming the shape. (2006)
Journal Article
Graham, M., Good, M., McGregor, A., & Pearce, J. (2006). Spatial learning based on the shape of the environment is influenced by properties of the objects forming the shape. Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes, 32(1), 44-59. https://doi.org/10.1037/0097-7403.32.1.44

In 3 experiments rats had to find a submerged platform that was located in a corner of a kite-shaped pool. The color of the walls creating this corner provided an additional cue for finding the platform in the shape + color condition but not the shap... Read More about Spatial learning based on the shape of the environment is influenced by properties of the objects forming the shape..

Hippocampal lesions disrupt navigation based on the shape of the environment (2004)
Journal Article
McGregor, A., Hayward, A., Pearce, J., & Good, M. (2004). Hippocampal lesions disrupt navigation based on the shape of the environment. Behavioral Neuroscience, 118(5), 1011-1021. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7044.118.5.1011

Geometric information provided by the walls of an environment has a strong influence over hippocampal unit activity. This suggests that the hippocampus forms part of a cognitive mapping system that encodes geometric relationships between environmenta... Read More about Hippocampal lesions disrupt navigation based on the shape of the environment.

Transfer of spatial behavior between different environments: Implications for theories of spatial learning and for the role of the hippocampus in spatial learning (2004)
Journal Article
Pearce, J., Good, M., Jones, P., & McGregor, A. (2004). Transfer of spatial behavior between different environments: Implications for theories of spatial learning and for the role of the hippocampus in spatial learning. Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes, 30(2), 135-147. https://doi.org/10.1037/0097-7403.30.2.135

In 3 experiments, rats were required to find a submerged platform located in 1 corner of an arena that had 2 long and 2 short sides; they were then trained to find the platform in a new arena that also had 2 long and 2 short sides but a different ove... Read More about Transfer of spatial behavior between different environments: Implications for theories of spatial learning and for the role of the hippocampus in spatial learning.