Cf. the last chapter of “Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman!”, Cargo Cult Science, where he disparages the entire body of results based on experiments of rats in mazes. He cites an unheralded experiment which sought to eliminate location clues sensible to rats, but not the human experimenter. The experimenter in this case resorted to basing the wooden mazes on sand to eliminate clues that the rats evidently discerened from the variation in their footing as they ran. He notes that this experiment was entirely ignored by the maze experiment establishment, even though it effectively demolished basic assumptions of their work.
I do not see how making a maze where rats are unable to use their normal means of navigation consists of a general invalidation of the results of maze experiments. Whatever the point of that is supposed to be, is not evident or explained.