The value of a comparative perspective: Theoretical comment on Pearce et al. (2005)

J. M. Pearce, D. N. George, M. Haselgrove, J. T. Erichson, and A Good (2005) report that damage to the hippocampus does not impair either delay conditioning, a biconditional discrimination, or a series of complex visual and spatial discriminations that require feature binding, but does impair trace conditioning and the ability to perform a working and reference memory maze task. The J. M. Pearce et al. study highlights the value of a comparative perspective and the value of appreciating the multiple ways in which animals can solve tasks, which together will provide a deeper understanding of the function of the hippocampus.