Overview
The radial arm maze was designed by Olton and Samuelson in 1976 to measure spatial learning and memory in rats. The original apparatus consists of eight equidistantly spaced arms, each about 4 feet long, and all radiating from a small circular central platform (later versions have used as few as three and as many as 48 arms). At the end of each arm there is a food site, the contents of which are not visible from the central platform.