Abstract
Five groups of pigeons were trained in a symbolic choice-matching feast involving short (2-sec) and long (10-sec) durations of houselight as samples. Four groups also received training with a second set of samples: line orientations or 2- and 10-sec presentations of keylight. The type of sample-to-comparison mapping varied across groups. Although only two of the five groups demonstrated a choose-short effect (a tendency to choose the comparison associated with a short sample at longer delays), all groups demonstrated temporal summation (a tendency to respond on the basis of the combined duration of two successively presented samples). Moreover, the magnitude of temporal summation was equivalent in groups that did and did not-demonstrate a choose-short effect. The results suggest that the processes underlying the perception of sample duration remain invariant across different sample-to-comparison mapping arrangements, but that the memory code used to retain temporal information varies.
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This research was supported by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (OGP 0443 to D.S.G. and OGP 0038861 to M.L.S.). The results of Experiment 2 were presented by the first author at the meeting of the Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science, June 1991.
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Grant, D.S., Spetch, M.L. Memory for duration in pigeons: Dissociation of choose-short and temporal-summation effects. Animal Learning & Behavior 21, 384–390 (1993). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03198005
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03198005