Comparative sensitivity of rats and humans to changes in auditory click rate.

Abstract

Thresholds for rat and human Ss were estimated from discrimination gradients using conditioning procedures which were similar for both species. Measures of sensitivity to changes in the rate of audible click presentations were obtained for repetition rates from 10-80 clicks per second. Marked agreement between the species was found for all test points except 80 pps. The possibility of a species difference in the perceptual basis of discrimination at 80 pps is discussed.

Recognition of Modified Conditioning Sounds by Competitively Trained Guinea Pigs

“…Rhythm can be reduced to a simpler form of temporal component, tempo. Classical studies have shown that a variety of animals can perceive tempos, including European starling (Hulse et al, 1984a , b ), quails (Schneider and Lickliter, 2009 ), pigeons (Farthing and Hearst, 1974 ; Hagmann and Cook, 2010 ), rats (Mostofsky et al, 1964 ; Crites et al, 1967 ; Weiss and Schindler, 1981 ; Meck et al, 1985 , 2013 ), cats (Dong et al, 2011 ), and non-human primates (McDermott and Hauser, 2007 ). In generalization testing after tempo discrimination training, it was classically claimed that the distribution pattern of correct responses across different tempo values (i.e., discrimination gradient) were determined by whether reinforcement was differentially or non-differentially assigned to tempos used for conditioning.…”

“…For rats and pigeons, differential discrimination training, in which one of two different click rates was reinforced but the other was not, led to the discrimination gradient with a progressively reducing performance bilaterally away from the positive peak located at the reinforced tempo. On the contrary, non-differential discrimination training, in which periods of a click rate were reinforced but the intervening silent periods were not, led to a relatively uniform discrimination gradient (Mostofsky et al, 1964 ; Weiss and Schindler, 1981 ). In our tempo modification tests of the non-differential type, we showed that discrimination performance to test tempos was asymmetrical along the tempo gradient; that is, good discrimination to tempos faster than the reinforced one vs. virtually no discrimination to tempos slower than the reinforced one.…”

Click frequency as a stimulus intensity parameter

“…Mostofsky, Shurtleff, & Margolius (1964) determined the generalization gradient for click frequency in both rats and humans and found that they were quite similar. They also calculated difference thresholds for click frequency in the two species based on their generalization gradients and found that the threshold was relatively constant at frequencies between 20 clicks/sec and 80 clicks/sec and was equal to approximately 0.12.…”