Pigeons’ memory for event duration: Differences between visual and auditory signals

Santi, Angelo; Stanford, Lianne; Coyle, James

doi:10.3758/bf03199209

Cited by 15 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Recal1that the pigeons in Group Dark-Dark pecked the samples significantly more than did the pigeons in Group LightDark. Choose-long effects of the kind found here have been reported in both rats (Santi, Weise, & Kuiper, 1995) and pigeons (Santi, Stanford, & Coyle, 1998) when samples involved durations of tone, but, to our knowledge, this is the first time such a bias has been reported in pigeons using visual sample durations.…”

Section: Retention Functionscontrasting

confidence: 45%

Event-duration discrimination by pigeons: The choose-short effect may result from retention-test novelty

Dorrance

Kaiser

Zentall

2000

Animal Learning & Behavior

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Pigeons trained on a conditional event-duration discrimination typically "choose short" when retention intervals are inserted between samples and comparisons.In two experiments, we tested the hypothesis that this effect results from ambiguity produced by the similarity of the novel retention intervals and the familiar intertrial interval by training pigeons with retention intervals from the outset and, for one group, in addition, making retention intervals distinctive from the intertrial intervals. In Experiment 1,when the retention intervals (0-4 sec) were not distinctive from the intertrial intervals, the pigeons did not show a clear choose-short effect even when extended retention intervals (8 sec) were introduced. When the retention intervals were distinctive, the pigeons showed a choose-long effect (they appeared to time through the retention interval), but it was relatively weak until the retention intervals were extended to 8 sec. In Experiment 2, when pigeons were discouraged from timing through the retention intervals by making the intertrial intervals and retention intervals salient distinct events and using long (up to 16-sec) retention intervals in training, parallel retention functions were found. It appears that when ambiguity is removed, forgetting by pigeons does not occur by the process of subjective shortening. These experiments suggest that the accurate interpretation of results of animal memory research using differential-duration samples must consider the novelty of the retention intervals on test trials as well as their similarity to other trial events.When pigeons are trained on a conditional discrimination in which the duration ofthe sample serves as the conditional stimulus (a short sample indicates that one of the comparisons is correct, and a long sample indicates that the other comparison is correct), the slope ofthe retention function with increasing delays depends on whether the sample is the longer or the shorter duration. Specifically, as retention intervals increase, matching accuracy on the short-sample trials typically remains high, but matching accuracy on the long-sample trials declines rapidly--often falling below chance at longer retention intervals (e.g., Spetch & Wilkie, 1982). These results have been interpreted as evidence of the subjective shortening of event duration with increasing retention intervals. That is, as the retention interval increases, memory for the sample duration shortens, such that, after longer retention intervals, memory for the long sample is actually more similar to that of the short sample at no delay (see Staddon & Higa, 1999, for a formal version of this model).Surprisingly, however, there is evidence, that this "choose-short" effect can be eliminated by merely illuminating the houselight during the intertrial interval. Under these conditions, the pigeons show parallel reten- tion functions (Spetch & Rusak, 1992). To account for this finding, Spetch and Rusak proposed that the pigeons evaluate the durations of the samples relative to the tempor...

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Section: Retention Functionscontrasting

confidence: 45%

Event-duration discrimination by pigeons: The choose-short effect may result from retention-test novelty

Dorrance

Kaiser

Zentall

2000

Animal Learning & Behavior

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“…The frequency of the tone was the same as that used in several previous studies on the timing of filled tone intervals in pigeons (Cheng & W. A. Roberts, 1989;W. A. Roberts, Cheng, & Cohen, 1989;Santi, Stanford, & Coyle, 1998). The intensity ofthe tone was 68 dB in one room and 60 dB in the other two rooms (as measured from the interior of the Plexiglas cage with a Radio Shack Digital Sound Level Meter 33-2055).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pigeons’ memory for empty time intervals marked by visual or auditory stimuli

Santi

Ross

Coppa

et al. 1999

Animal Learning & Behavior

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In Experiment 1, pigeons were trained to discriminate the duration (2 or 8 sec) of an empty interval separated by two 1325-Hz tone markers by responding to red and green comparison stimuli. During delay testing, a choose-short bias occurred at 1 sec, but a robust choose-long bias occurred at 9 sec. Responding in the absence of tone markers indicated that the pigeons were attending to the markers and not simply timing the total trial duration. The birds were then trained to match short (2-sec) or long (8-sec) empty intervals marked by light to blue/yellow comparisons. For both visual and auditory markers, delay testing produced a choose-short bias at 1sec and a choose-long bias at 9 sec. In Experiment 2, the pigeons were shifted from a fixed to variable intertrial intervals (ITI) within sessions. On trials with tone markers, the duration of both the empty interval and the preceding ITI affected choice responding. On trials with light markers, only the duration of the empty interval influenced choice responding. Subsequent delay testing in the context of variable ITIs replicated the memory biases previously obtained. In Experiment 3, performance was assessed at various delay intervals on trials in which either the first or the second marker was omitted. The data from these omission tests indicated that the first marker initiated timing but that the second marker sometimes initiated the timing of a new interval. Explanations of these effects in terms of the internal clock model of timing are discussed, and a simple quantitative model of the delay interval data is tested.Procedural variables are important in the study oftime perception. A comparison of the discrimination offilled intervals and the discrimination of empty intervals has been the focus of some human research (Abel, 1972a(Abel, , 1972bGrondin, 1993;Rammsayer & Lima, 1991), as well as ofanimal research (Mantanus, 1981). In the empty stimulus condition of the study by Mantanus, a flash of light marked the beginning ofthe interval, and presentation of the choice keys marked the end of the interval. The filled interval consisted of the continuous presentation of the light. Mantanus found that pigeons were more accurate with filled intervals than with empty intervals. The interpretation of this effect is ambiguous, because of a number of design and general test procedure problems that were recently outlined by Kraemer, Randall, and Brown (1997). In order to address these concerns, Kraemer et al. (1997) conducted a study in which pigeons were trained to discriminate either filled intervals (light present) or empty intervals (light absent). Consistent with the findings ofMantanus, they found that pigeons judged This research was supported by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (OGPOOD6378). The authors thank Marion Corrick and David Hemsworth for their technical assistance and Melanie Bucking for assisting with some of the data collection. The authors are also very appreciative ofthe substantial contribution of an a...

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“…For instance, when a delay was introduced after the sample stimulus, Santi et al (1998) found a choose-short effect when pigeons timed visual stimuli. This suggests that pigeons start timing at the onset of the visual signal and stop at the offset of the signal.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the modality of the event being timed also appears to play a role in the assessment of memory for event duration. Santi et al (1998) trained pigeons to match short and long durations of light to one set of color comparisons and the same durations of tone to a different set of color comparisons. During delay testing, choose-short errors occurred following light durations, but choose-long errors occurred following tone durations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus the ''choose-long'' bias obtained when memory for tone duration was tested cannot be simply accounted for by the idea that the birds had learned to respond on the basis of time since the end of the previous trial. Santi et al (1998) suggested that the difference in response biases observed during delay testing for tone and light was probably due to the nature of the stimulus which controls the termination of timing. For a light signal, the offset of the light itself appears to terminate timing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Pigeons’ timing of an arbitrary and a naturalistic auditory stimulus: tone versus cooing

Miki

Santi

2001

Behavioural Processes

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Previous animal research has traditionally used arbitrary stimuli to investigate timing in a temporal bisection procedure. The current study compared the timing of the duration of an arbitrary, auditory stimulus (a 500-Hz tone) to the timing of the duration of a naturalistic, auditory stimulus (a pigeon cooing). In the first phase of this study, temporal perception was assessed by comparing psychophysical functions for the duration of tone and cooing signals. In the first set of tests, the point of subjective equality (PSE) was significantly lower for the tone than for the cooing stimulus, indicating that tones were judged longer than equivalent durations of cooing. In the second set of tests, gaps were introduced in the tone signal to match those present in the cooing signal, and no significant difference in the PSE for the tone or the cooing signal was found. A repetition of the testing conducted with gaps removed from the tone signal, failed to replicate the difference in the PSEs for the tone and cooing signals originally obtained. In the second phase of the study, memory for the duration of tone and cooing was examined, and a choose-long bias was found for both signals. Based on these results, it appears that, for pigeons, there may be no significant differences in either temporal perception or temporal memory for arbitrary, auditory signals and more complex, naturalistic, auditory signals.

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Pigeons’ memory for event duration: Differences between visual and auditory signals

Cited by 15 publications

References 40 publications

Event-duration discrimination by pigeons: The choose-short effect may result from retention-test novelty

Event-duration discrimination by pigeons: The choose-short effect may result from retention-test novelty

Pigeons’ memory for empty time intervals marked by visual or auditory stimuli

Pigeons’ timing of an arbitrary and a naturalistic auditory stimulus: tone versus cooing

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