Returning to home cage serves as an effective reward for maze learning in rats.

This study examined the effectiveness in rats of 'returning to home cage' as a reward for learning a Lashley III maze. Rats could return to their home cage directly (Direct HC group) or they could be removed manually by an experimenter from the maze's goal box (Indirect HC group). In the third group, hungry rats received a food reward in the goal box (Food group).