Wilkie D M, Carr J A, Galloway J, Jo Parker K, Yamamoto A
Department of Psychology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.
Behav Processes. 1997 Jul;40(2):165-70. doi: 10.1016/s0376-6357(97)00781-x.
Encoding the spatial location and the time at which significant biological events occur is thought to be a fundamental way in which memory is organized in animals. Some field data on gulls' foraging behavior suggests that time-place behavior may consist of a conditional discrimination. In this study gulls flew at sunrise to locations containing earth worms, but only after rainfall. The purpose of the present research was to attempt to demonstrate conditional time-place learning in the laboratory. Pigeons were trained to visit three sites successively in two different orders that were signaled by room and test chamber cues. The pigeons successfully learned the task, supporting the notion that time-place foraging behavior can be modulated by other environmental regularities.
对重要生物事件发生的空间位置和时间进行编码，被认为是动物记忆组织的一种基本方式。一些关于海鸥觅食行为的实地数据表明，时间-地点行为可能包含条件辨别。在这项研究中，海鸥在日出时飞向有蚯蚓的地点，但前提是此前下过雨。本研究的目的是试图在实验室中证明条件性时间-地点学习。鸽子被训练按照两种不同顺序依次访问三个地点，这两种顺序由房间和测试箱的提示信号表示。鸽子成功学会了这项任务，支持了时间-地点觅食行为可受其他环境规律调节的观点。
