Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Cohen and Eichenbaum (C&E, 1993) proposed that the hippocampus supports compositionality and inherently, flexible relational transfer of learning. Based on this proposal, rats were tested for symmetrical transfer of learning after training on relations between locations. Since a rat's hippocampus supports its spatial abilities, and since a relational test was being conducted, it was predicted that a strong degree of transfer would be obtained. The finding, however, was a general lack of relational transfer of learning. These results appear to limit the generality of C&E's theory and also seem to constrain the theory that the hippocampus is the biological seat of compositionality.