Doing Socrates experiment right: controlled rearing studies of geometrical knowledge in animals

The issue of whether encoding of geometric information for navigational purposes crucially depends on environmental experience or whether it is innately predisposed in the brain has been recently addressed in controlled rearing studies. Non-human animals can make use of the geometric shape of an environment for spatial reorientation and in some circumstances reliance on purely geometric information (metric properties and sense) can overcome use of local featural information. Animals reared in home cages of different geometric shapes proved to be equally capable of learning and performing navigational tasks based on geometric information. The findings suggest that effective use of geometric information for spatial reorientation does not require experience in environments with right angles and metrically distinct surfaces. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.