Our aim was to develop a behavioral method to analyze prefrontal cortex function in outbred albino ICR:CD1 mice. The attentional set shifting test is successfully used in rats, and recently also in mice, although there has been controversy whether the mice can form attentional sets. Here, we used a food bait digging procedure described for the rats (Birrell JM and Brown VJ, 2000, J Neurosci 20, 4320-4324) and adapted to C57Bl/6J mice (Bissonette GB et al., 2008, J Neurosci 28, 11124–11130). We food restricted adult male ICR:CD1 mice (Harlan) to 85–90% of normal weight and trained them to dig materials in a correct cup in order to get a bait. Cues for a correct cup were either digging materials (tactile, visual) or odors (olfactory). The procedure consisted tasks of simple discrimination, compound discrimination, compound discrimination reversal, six intradimensional shifts and an extradimensional shift. Criteria were 8 out of 10 and last 6 consecutively correct. The ICR mice could perform the discrimination tasks, and as expected the reversal task required significantly more trials than the preceding compound discrimination. We found intradimensional shifts easier when odors were used as relevant cues, and even worsening of performance in consecutive intradimensional shifts when materials were used as relevant cues. Extradimensional shift was not consistently more difficult than the preceding intradimensional shift. Thus, we could not demonstrate a formation of attentional sets in the ICR mice.