reference memory
in animal cognition, the representation of an association between objects, spatial locations, or other stimuli that remains consistent across several trials of an experimental session and is used to guide behavior. Matching to sample and various other tasks involving simultaneous or successive discrimination are commonly used to assess reference memory in nonhuman animals. For example, a pigeon presented with both a green and a red disk is rewarded with a food pellet for pecking the green one. If the green disk remains the correct choice across all trials in which the two objects are presented, the pigeon relies on reference memory to retain this information and choose the correct disk. Compare working memory. [initially described in 1978 by German-born U.S. psychologist Werner Konstantin Honig (1932–2001) and subsequently elaborated by U.S. physiological psychologist David Stuart Olton (1943–1994) and various
colleagues]