Ward Ryan D, Odum Amy L
Department of Psychology, 2810 Old Main Hill, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322-2810, USA.
Behav Processes. 2006 Feb 28;71(2-3):297-306. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2005.11.016. Epub 2006 Jan 6.
This experiment investigated the effects of nonpharmacological disruption on temporal discrimination. Pigeons responded on a multiple schedule composed of fixed interval, color-matching, and temporal-discrimination components. The effects of three different disruptors (prefeeding, intercomponent-interval food, and extinction) were assessed. All disruptors decreased response rates during the fixed interval. Prefeeding and intercomponent-interval food had unsystematic effects on response patterning during the fixed interval, whereas extinction increased the relative response rate in the initial portions of the fixed interval. Accuracy of color matching was decreased by prefeeding and was not systematically affected by intercomponent-interval food and extinction. In the temporal-discrimination component, all disruptors flattened the psychophysical functions relating proportion long responses to sample duration. This result indicates a general disruption of temporal discrimination. In addition, parameter estimates derived from the behavioral theory of timing indicated all disruptors decreased pacemaker rate, a result consistent with the predictions of the theory. These results highlight the similarities between disruption of temporal discrimination by pharmacological and nonpharmacological manipulations.
本实验研究了非药物干扰对时间辨别能力的影响。鸽子在由固定间隔、颜色匹配和时间辨别成分组成的多重强化程序上做出反应。评估了三种不同干扰因素（预喂、成分间间隔喂食和消退）的影响。所有干扰因素都降低了固定间隔期间的反应率。预喂和成分间间隔喂食对固定间隔期间的反应模式有非系统性影响，而消退则增加了固定间隔初始部分的相对反应率。预喂降低了颜色匹配的准确性，成分间间隔喂食和消退对其没有系统性影响。在时间辨别成分中，所有干扰因素都使与长反应比例和样本持续时间相关的心理物理函数变得平坦。这一结果表明时间辨别能力受到了普遍干扰。此外，从计时行为理论得出的参数估计表明，所有干扰因素都降低了起搏器速率，这一结果与该理论的预测一致。这些结果突出了药物和非药物操作对时间辨别能力干扰之间的相似性。
