Pigeons flexibly time or count on cue.
In Experiment 1, pigeons were presented with a sequence of light flashes and cued to peck a key for reward either after a fixed time or after a fixed number of flashes. Curves that showed the rate of key pecking over time within trials indicated that peak rates of response were reached near the fixed time on timing-cued trials and near the fixed number of flashes on counting-cued trials. In Experiment 2, the key cue was shifted from timing to counting or from counting to timing midway through a trial. The peak times reached after the cue change indicated that pigeons kept track of time while cued to count but did not count while cued to time. These findings suggest a basic asymmetry in the dual-mode model of timing and counting.
Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5C2, Canada. roberts@julian.uwo.ca
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D000818:Animals; D001070:Appetitive Behavior; D001288:Attention; D010856:Columbidae; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D011939:Mental Recall; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011340:Problem Solving; D012691:Serial Learning; D013998:Time Perception