New approaches to the study of comparative cognition.

The rat's memory capacity and performance render it an excellent model of human memory. Rats display serial position, serial anticipation learning, temporal coding, and repetition lag functions as well as utilization of retrospective and prospective codes that are nearly equivalent to that observed for humans. Furthermore, based on the above-mentioned memory performance functions, there are comparable memory-deficit patterns between brain-damaged rats and humans. Thus, the rat can serve as an excellent animal model to evaluate the efficacy of pharmacological treatments or brain damage upon memory.