Weber’s Law and the Scalar Property of Timing: A Test of Canine Timing

Cliff, Jessica Helen; Jackson, Surrey Merryn Kate; McEwan, James; Bizo, Lewis A.

doi:10.3390/ani9100801

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…A finding of importance to timing research is that the point of subjective equality-the time at which choice between the two stimuli was indifferent-became smaller with changes in the discriminability of the response alternatives (Figure 7). In addition to changing with the temporal structure of the taskfor example, the geometric mean of the durations to be timed (e.g., Allan & Gibbon, 1991;Church & Deluty, 1977;Cliff et al, 2019;Fetterman & Killeen, 1991;Meck, 1983;Raslear, 1983), the duration of the inter-trial interval (Killeen & Fetterman, 1988) the PSE also changes with relative reinforcer rates for different responses (Stubbs, 1980;Machado & Guilhardi, 2000). We might have expected in the present experiment that the PSE value might simply have become poorly estimated when response discriminability became poor, but as Figure 7 shows, this was not the case: PSE values became small but were quite consistent across pigeons.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling choice across time: Effects of response–reinforcer discriminability

Davison

Cowie

2021

J Exper Analysis Behavior

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This experiment asks whether timing is affected by animals' discrimination of response-reinforcer contingencies, and if so, how this effect can be understood. Six pigeons were trained on a procedure in which concurrent-schedule reinforcer ratios between left and right keys changed at 30 s after the last reinforcer. One stimulus signaled a reinforcer-ratio reversal from 9:1 to 1:9 on that key, and the other stimulus signaled the inverse reversal, with the key on which these stimuli occurred randomized. Across conditions, the physical difference between the stimuli signaling the two responses was varied and the directional changes in the reinforcer ratio signaled by each stimulus were reversed. Choice changed appropriately across time when the two stimuli were discriminable, and points of subjective equality fell with decreasing stimulus difference. A model which assumed that reinforcers obtained in time bins were redistributed across other time bins according to ogivally changing standard deviations, and between response locations according to an ogivally changing redistribution measure, accounted well for the data. This model was shown to be preferable to one in which across-time redistributions were scalar, and across-location redistribution was constant. These results show the critical importance of stimulus-response-reinforcer discriminability to measures of timing.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling choice across time: Effects of response–reinforcer discriminability

Davison

Cowie

2021

J Exper Analysis Behavior

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“…The increase of the CVs with longer intervals has been noted not only in humans, but also in other animals as well. Crystal (2001) reported shallow U-shaped Weber functions for rats, as did Cliff et al (2019) in all six of the dogs they tested. Bizo et al (2006) also found it with pigeons, as shown in Figure 4.…”

Section: Contextmentioning

confidence: 91%

A trace theory of time perception.

Killeen

Grondin

2022

Psychological Review

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Many comparisons involve sequentially presented stimuli, as perforce the case in comparisons of temporal intervals. Interactions of such stimuli are as inevitable as the spatial interactions that yield color and brightness contrast. A memory-trace theory of perception (TToP) is developed and applied to time perception. Duration is estimated based on the memorial strength of the stimuli that signal the initiation of an interval at the time of its termination. Memorial persistence depends on modality and character of the signals, which condition the response to them. When the constant difference limen on the memorial continuum is back-translated to the temporal one it yields a generalized Weber function. Memory traces interact as a function of generalization gradients: Memories of stimuli that are similar enough are aggregated—feature-bound—some veridically, others as illusory conjunctions. The resulting representations may then be judged in a discrimination paradigm, or translated back to the physical domain as reproductions of the intervals. The presentation of a standard stimulus affects the perception of the comparison stimulus, warping the ruler by which it is measured. Complementary effects are predicted for discrimination and adjustment paradigms. Thus configured, the TToP accounts for multiple special effects, variously referred to as distortions, anomalies, and illusions, that are observed with classical psychophysical methods: Scalar and nonscalar timing, modality effects, time-order errors, masking, time warping, lengthening, and Vierordt’s law. Similar processes affect the perception of nontemporal stimuli whenever they are presented in sequential proximity to one another.

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“…One possibility to explain these results, is that time difference between the fast and the congruent condition (0.5 s) was not large enough to be detected by dogs, while the same was not true for the time difference between the congruent and the slow conditions (1 s). This seems unlikely, as durational discrimination in dogs, as well as in other species, is based on proportional differences, rather than absolute differences (Cliff et al 2019;Heinrich et al 2022;Vanmarle and Wynn 2006). Based on that, one would expect the opposite result, since the ratio between the timing of the congruent and fast condition (3.6) was larger than that between the slow and the congruent condition (2.4).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Dogs’ ability to follow temporarily invisible moving objects: the ability to track and expect is shaped by experience

et al. 2022

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Visually tracking a moving object, even if it becomes temporarily invisible, is an important skill for animals living in complex environments. However, this ability has not been widely explored in dogs. To address this gap of knowledge and understand how experience contributes to such ability, we conducted two experiments using a violation of expectation paradigm. Dogs were shown an animation of a ball moving horizontally across a screen, passing behind an occluder, and reappearing with a timing that was faster, slower or congruent with its initial speed. In the first experiment, dogs (N = 15) were exposed to the incongruent conditions without prior experience; while in the second experiment, dogs (N = 37) were preliminarily exposed to the congruent stimulus. Dogs of the first experiment did not exhibit a surprise effect, as measured by latency to look away from the expected stimulus presentation area, in response to the incongruent conditions, suggesting they had not formed an expectation about the timing of reappearance. However, their latency to orient towards the reappearing ball depended on the condition, suggesting they were able, to some extent, to visually keep track of the stimulus’ trajectory. Dogs of the second experiment were surprised when the ball stayed behind the occluder longer than expected, but showed no difference in latency to orient across conditions. This suggests they had overcome the visual tracking mechanism and had formed expectations about the timing of reappearance. In conclusion, dogs seem to use a low-level mechanism to keep visual track of a temporarily disappearing moving object, but experience is required to make expectation about its trajectory.

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Weber’s Law and the Scalar Property of Timing: A Test of Canine Timing

Cited by 6 publications

References 39 publications

Modeling choice across time: Effects of response–reinforcer discriminability

Modeling choice across time: Effects of response–reinforcer discriminability

A trace theory of time perception.

Dogs’ ability to follow temporarily invisible moving objects: the ability to track and expect is shaped by experience

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