This study was conducted to investigate the effects of estrogen and progesterone on spatial memory in ovariectomized female rats, specifically, on memory impaired by the cholinergic antagonist scopolamine. Forty-one female rats were divided into five groups: ovariectomized (OVX), estrogen-treated after ovariectomy (OE), progesterone-treated after ovariectomy (OP), estrogen-progesterone-treated after ovariectomy (OEP), and the sham control group (Control). The animals were trained on an eight-arm radial maze with four arms baited to assess both working and reference memory performances. The OE and OEP groups showed significant improvement in the ability to perform a spatial memory task over the OVX group (P<0.05). Spatial memory in the OP group did not differ from that in the OVX group. After thirty-two trials were conducted and all rats learned the eight-radial maze task, scopolamine hydrobromide (0.2 mg/kg i.p.) was administered prior to retesting. After scopolamine injection, the OVX group showed an increased number of working memory errors, reference memory errors than the other groups (P<0.05). The OE, OEP and OP groups showed significant improvement in spatial impairment induced by scopolamine. These findings suggest progesterone alone or in combination with estrogen, improved scopolamine-induced impairment of working memory and reference memory as effectively as estrogen supplementation.