Abstract
Rats searched for food that was contingent on time and place in an open field. One location was active at a time, the active location moved in a clockwise direction after each reward, and each location was repeated several times on each daily session. When a location was active, the first response after a fixed interval produced food. The intervals associated with each of the four locations were consistently 60, 30, 30, and 60 sec. For independent groups, inspecting an inactive location had no consequence (n = 7) or reduced the amount of food delivered at the active location (n = 6). The rates of inspecting active and inactive locations increased before the associated intervals elapsed, with preferential responding at the active locations. Rates of anticipation at active locations failed to superimpose when plotted as a function of proportional time. Simultaneous temporal and spatial processing contributed to the failure of proportional timing.
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Part of this research was presented at the 40th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Los Angeles, November 1999. Preparation of this article was partially supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH61618 to the University of Georgia. The research is based on a BSc honor’s thesis submitted by B.J.M. to the College of William & Mary. G. Fetterman, P. Killeen, J.Wearden, and an anonymous reviewer provided helpful comments on the manuscript.
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Crystal, J.D., Miller, B.J. Simultaneous temporal and spatial processing. Animal Learning & Behavior 30, 53–65 (2002). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03192909
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03192909