Dreyfus L R, Fetterman J G, Smith L D, Stubbs D A
Department of Psychology, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York 12601.
J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process. 1988 Oct;14(4):349-67.
In four experiments, pigeons were tested on a duration comparison task involving the successive presentation of two visual stimuli that varied in duration from trial to trial. Following presentation of the durations, two choice keys were lit, and reinforcement for choices was based on the temporal relation between duration of the pair. In Experiment 1, the range of durations was varied over conditions. Responding changed as an orderly function of the ratio of the two durations. There was a decrease in discrimination accuracy as average duration increased over condition but no difference in accuracy between shorter and longer problems within a duration range. There was no systematic response bias over conditions for all problems within a range, but there was a bias to report the second duration longer than the first for "long" problems within a range. In Experiment 2, the pigeons were transferred from a task involving spatially differentiated choices to one involving hue-differentiated choices. Performance was similar to that of the spatial procedure of Experiment 1. Additional analyses revealed that although information provided by a single duration of the pair was sometimes predictive of the temporal relation between pair members, responding was also based on the relation and comparison of both durations. In Experiment 3, the pigeons were exposed to a single duration range that included many durations from the four ranges of Experiment 1. Discrimination accuracy was comparable in the fourth and longest category. Manipulation of absolute reinforcement rate in Experiment 4 resulted in no chang in discrimination accuracy, suggesting that the decline in accuracy over conditions of Experiment 1 could not be attributed to decreases in reinforcement rate that accompanied lengthier durations. The results are discussed in terms of theories of animal timing, with Staddon's (1983, 1984) temporal perspective model providing the most systematic account of all aspects of performance.
在四项实验中，对鸽子进行了时长比较任务测试，该任务涉及依次呈现两个时长在每次试验中都不同的视觉刺激。在呈现时长之后，两个选择键亮起，对选择的强化基于这对时长之间的时间关系。在实验1中，时长范围在不同条件下有所变化。反应随着两个时长比率的有序函数而变化。随着平均时长在不同条件下增加，辨别准确率有所下降，但在一个时长范围内，较短和较长问题的准确率没有差异。在一个范围内的所有问题中，不同条件下没有系统的反应偏差，但在一个范围内的“长”问题中，存在报告第二个时长比第一个长的偏差。在实验2中，鸽子从涉及空间差异选择的任务转移到涉及色调差异选择的任务。表现与实验1的空间程序相似。进一步分析表明，虽然一对中单个时长提供的信息有时能预测对成员之间的时间关系，但反应也是基于两个时长的关系和比较。在实验3中，鸽子接触到一个单一的时长范围，其中包括实验1的四个范围中的许多时长。在第四个也是最长的类别中，辨别准确率相当。实验4中对绝对强化率的操纵导致辨别准确率没有变化，这表明实验1中准确率随条件的下降不能归因于伴随更长时长的强化率下降。根据动物计时理论对结果进行了讨论，斯塔登（1983年、1984年）的时间视角模型对表现的各个方面提供了最系统的解释。
