Time perception Flashcards
Why is timing important in animals?
> Foraging
Remembering
Spatial navigation
Understanding of space and serial order
What did Berthold (1978) demonstrate?
Birds have an internal annual clock for migratory behaviour
What are Zeitgebers?
> Entraining agents (synchronisers, time givers, etc.)
> Help orientate internal cycles
What did Renner (1960) find?
> Bees
Trained to feed at the same time every day
Took them to new york (5hr difference)
Bees attempted to feed after 24hrs (not 29, in keeping with the sun’s position)
What did Mistlberger (1993) find?
> Rats
Lesions to the suprachiasmatic nucleus
Still anticipated daily feedings
What is temporal generalisation?
Responding to a test stimulus of a different length to the training stimulus. Strength of responding is determined by the difference
What did Church and Gibbon (1982) find?
> Rats
Lever press rewarded only after darkness interval 4s
Rats were able to learn duration
Typical generalisation gradient (bell curve around reinforced duration)
What is the Information Processing Model of Timing?
> Pacemaker
Working Memory (WM)
Reference Memory (RM)
> WM x RM -> Comparator (determines response)
Who proposed the Information Processing Model of Timing?
Gibbon, Church and Meck (1984)
What is Scalar Timing Theory?
There is a constant relationship between each unit of remembered time and each unit of actual time
Who proposed Scalar Timing Theory?
Gallistel and Gibbon (2000)
What is the Oscillator Model?
> Internal oscillators
Each oscillator is half the length of the previous
Unambiguously determining timing requires remembering the comparative position of all the (relevant) oscillators
What is entrainment?
When rhythmic physiological or behavioural events match their period and phase to that of an environmental oscillation
