The sentinel use of the four box task was for a baseline task in which rats were trained in a square box environment. A subsequent probe trial was done in which the original training route was blocked and three novel routes were introduced, one of which led directly to the food reward. The original paper showed that rats failed to choose this shortcut route over the alternative routes, implying that novel spatial inference was missing in rodents whereas it may be present in humans and infants.

Sizing for mouse, rat and custom available upon request