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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 May 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Comp Psychol. 2016 Apr 14;130(2):174–186. doi: 10.1037/com0000034

Figure 1. Representative schematic of the 3-box apparatus.

Figure 1

The 3-box apparatus is depicted above. Rats are placed in the middle “decision” box at the start of the experiment, and given the option to enter a cast acrylic tube attached to either side of the box. Food receptacles (rectangles) are located directly opposite from the tunnel, and water nozzles (circles) are located next to the door of each reward box. During outcome exposure of each week, a guillotine door (dashed line) is lowered once IR sensors are broken just before entering one of the reward boxes. Rats are able to roam this expanded environment for the entire 30-minute session on test days.