Research article summary (published 29 Jun 2009):

Averaging of temporal memories by rats.

Full Abstract

Rats were trained on a mixed fixed-interval schedule in which stimulus A (tone or light) indicated food availability after 10 s and stimulus B (the other stimulus) indicated food availability after 20 s. Testing consisted of nonreinforced probe trials in which the stimulus was A, B, or the compound AB. On single-stimulus trials, rats responded with a peak of activity around the programmed reinforced time. On compound-stimulus trials, rats showed a single scalar peak of responding at a time midway between those for stimulus A and B. These results suggest that when provided with discrepant information regarding the temporal predictability of reinforcement, rats compute an average of the scheduled reinforcement times for the A and B stimuli and use this average to generate an expectation of reward for the compound stimuli.

Author information

Author/s: Swanton, Dale N (DN); Gooch, Cynthia M (CM); Matell, Matthew S (MS);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Avenue, Villanova, PA 19085, USA.

Grants: R03 DA021702-02 (Agency:NIDA NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes (J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Jul; vol 35 (issue 3) : pp 434-9

Dates: Created 2009/07/14; Completed 2009/09/17; Revised 2009/11/04;

PMID: 19594288, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/5/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Acoustic Stimulation Animals Association Learning Conditioning, Operant Conflict (Psychology) Cues Discrimination Learning Male

Male Mental Recall Photic Stimulation Problem Solving Rats Rats, Sprague-Dawley Reinforcement Schedule Time Perception

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