Editing Animal cognition (section)

=====Water maze=====
{{main|Morris water navigation task}}
The [[Water maze (neuroscience)|water maze]] is used to test an animal's memory for spatial location and to discover how an animal is able to determine locations. Typically the maze is a circular tank filled with water that has been made milky so that it is opaque. Located somewhere in the maze is a small platform placed just below the surface of the water. When placed in the tank, the animal swims around until it finds and climbs up on the platform. With practice, the animal finds the platform more and more quickly. Reference memory is assessed by removing the platform and observing the relative amount of time the animal spends swimming in the area where the platform had been located.  Visual and other cues in and around the tank may be varied to assess the animal's reliance on landmarks and the geometric relations among them.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Vorhees CV, Williams MT | title = Morris water maze: procedures for assessing spatial and related forms of learning and memory | journal = Nature Protocols | volume = 1 | issue = 2 | pages = 848–58 | year = 2006 | pmid = 17406317 | pmc = 2895266 | doi = 10.1038/nprot.2006.116}}</ref>