Temporal discrimination learning by pigeons
Section snippets
The instructional ambiguity hypothesis
The procedures that have been used to study memory for sample duration have involved two important elements. First, generally, the pigeons are trained in the absence of delays so delays are a novel experience for them. Second, and more important, the intertrial intervals are generally quite similar in appearance to the novel delays. Thus, the procedure may create for the pigeon a somewhat ambiguous condition. If the delay is mistaken for an intertrial interval, its appearance could be viewed as
Present–absent sample matching
In duration sample matching, when the short sample is 0-s long, the task becomes present–absent sample matching. In present–absent sample matching, on some trials there is a sample stimulus and on other trials the sample is absent. The sample may be a hue, a shape, or the presence of food (Grant, 1991, Maki, 1979, Sherburne and Zentall, 1993). It can even be the presence versus the absence of pecking two different sample stimuli (Weaver et al., 1999).
Present–absent sample matching bears some
Conclusions about artifacts
Research on memory for sample durations has been biased by an artifact produced by the similarity of the testing delays and the intertrial interval. This similarity of events is likely responsible for the divergent retention functions typically found (Sherburne et al., 1998). When the instructional ambiguity has been removed, parallel retention functions have been found. Furthermore, a second source of ambiguity may have been the novelty of the delays during testing. When delays were
Relational and subjective timing by pigeons
Recently, we have been interested in the degree to which timing by animals is affected by the context in which the animal is timing. One of the questions we have tried to answer is to what extent, in addition to their absolute values, the relational aspects of the short and long durations are encoded. A second question is how a secondary response requirement affects the animals’ timing ability.
Acknowledgements
The author thank Lou Sherburne, Tricia Clement, Rebecca Singer, Emily Klein, Daren Kaiser, Janice Weaver, and Brigette Dorrance for their contribution to the research presented in this article. Preparation of this article and much of the research described was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH-59194 and MH63726.
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2017, Behavioural ProcessesCitation Excerpt :Nevertheless, the experimental approaches used in these studies can be transferred to longer intervals. Apart from discrimination studies in which animals are trained to differentiate between intervals varying in relative length using operant conditioning (Crystal 2002; Odum 2006; Zentall 2007; Kim et al., 2009; Heinrich et al., 2016), the so-called peak-interval procedure has been used (Zentall 2006; Sanabria and Killeen 2007). In this procedure, animals are trained to expect a specific event (reinforcer) after a fixed interval (absolute time), and the changes in etho-physiological variables in the course of and towards the end of this interval are observed.
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2012, Learning and MotivationCitation Excerpt :It may be that an extended delay interval with no pellet delivery and the houselight not illuminated was treated as being more similar to a no-food sample than a food-sample and resulted in a detectable bias to respond to the comparison correct for the no-food sample. This is also a type of instructional ambiguity, called sample-delay ambiguity, which has been documented in studies of memory for number in both pigeons and rats (Keough, Santi, & Van Rooyen, 2007; Santi, Lellwitz & Gagne, 2006; Santi & Van Rooyen, 2007; Van Rooyen & Santi, 2008; Zentall, 2007). Finally, in the case of group ITI dark, illumination of the houselight during the DI was a novel event but more similar to trial events like illumination of the magazine light during a sample than to a dark ITI.
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2011, Behavioural ProcessesCitation Excerpt :In the current experiment, the no-food sample was made distinctive from the delay interval by presenting illuminated cue lights during the sample presentation phase but not during the delay interval and retention asymmetries were still obtained. Another explanation of the retention asymmetry which has been ruled out in pigeons is ambiguity between the delay interval and the ITI (Zentall, 2005, 2007). According to this hypothesis, because of a similarity in stimulus conditions, novel delay intervals are confused with the ITI and a pigeon may expect to receive the sample stimulus at the end of a novel delay interval.
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2011, Learning and MotivationCitation Excerpt :It seems unlikely that the rats were comparing the duration of s to the summed duration of the s–c delay and c. The increase in the percentage of long responding on equal-duration probe trials could have been a result of instructional ambiguity/confusion between the dark s–c delay and the dark ITI (Dorrance et al., 2000; Sherburne et al., 1998; Zentall, 1997, 1999, 2007). According to this hypothesis, rats may have confused a long dark s–c delay with a dark ITI, and they may have expected s to be presented following an extended dark s–c delay instead of c. On these trials, rats may have compared a recent memory of c to no memory of s.
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2008, Learning and MotivationEffects of retention interval on performance in a numerical reproduction task
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