Temporal search as a function of the variability of interfood intervals

J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process. 1998 Jul;24(3):291-315. doi: 10.1037//0097-7403.24.3.291.

Abstract

We attempted to determine whether timing theories developed primarily to explain performance in fixed-interval reinforcement schedules are also applicable to variable intervals. Groups of rats were trained in lever boxes on peak procedures with a 30-, 45-, or 60-s interval, or a 30- to 60-s uniform distribution (Experiment 1); a 60-s fixed and 1- to 121-s uniform distribution between and within animals (Experiment 2); and a procedure in which the interval between food and next available food gradually changed from a fixed 60 s to a uniform distribution between 0 and 120 s (Experiment 3). In uniform interval schedules rats made lever responses at particular times since food, as measured by the distribution of food-food intervals, the distribution of postreinforcement pauses, and the mean response rate as a function of time since food. Qualitative features of this performance are described by a multiple-oscillator connectionist theory of timing.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Behavior, Animal / physiology
  • Feeding Behavior / physiology*
  • Male
  • Rats
  • Reinforcement Schedule
  • Time Factors