rafl¹ mutants show significantly greater optomotor responsiveness than wild type flies in an optomotor maze paradigm. Optomotor responses in rafl¹ mutants are significantly decreased when a distraction is present, though not as much as in wild type flies. rafl¹ optomotor performance is significantly increased following repeated exposure to the maze.

Unlike wild type flies, rafl¹ flies fail to learn to avoid visuals associated with shaking.

rafl¹ flies have attenuated baseline brain responses when exposed to visual objects alone, compared to wild type flies. Mutant flies also exhibit an aberrant response to novel objects.

Homozygous rafl¹ mutants do not show any change in sensitivity to ethanol vapor compared with controls. However rafl¹ mutant flies do show reduced chronic tolerance to ethanol. Whereas control flies exhibit a reduced behavioural response following overnight pre-exposure to a low concentration of ethanol (never reaching intoxicating levels), a similar response in seen in rafl¹ mutant flies with or without pre-exposure. No change in rapid tolerance is seen; as in controls, the flies exhibit a reduced behavioural response 3.5 hours following pre-exposure to intoxicating levels of ethanol.

In memory tests, mutants perform at 97% of wild-type after a single training session, at 24% after spaced training.