The Morris water maze is a widely used paradigm for assessing spatial learning and memory in rodents; however, variability in procedures and analysis can lead to inconsistent results across laboratories. Here, we present a protocol for the standardized design of Morris water maze experiments and statistical analysis using SPSS. We describe procedures for preliminary screening of mice, spatial data acquisition, assessment of spatial working memory and reference memory, as well as detailed SPSS operation and result interpretation.
Hu et al. (Wed,) studied this question.