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Updated: May 8, 2026

The Power of Interstimulus Interval for the Assessment of Temporal Processing in Rodents
Published on: April 19, 2019
Temporal contingency
C R Gallistel1, Andrew R Craig2, Timothy A Shahan2
1Department of Psychology and Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science, 152 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854, United States.
Abstract:
Contingency, and more particularly temporal contingency, has often figured in thinking about the nature of learning. However, it has never been formally defined in such a way as to make it a measure that can be applied to most animal learning protocols. We use elementary information theory to define contingency in such a way as to make it a measurable property of almost any conditioning protocol. We discuss how making it a measurable construct enables the exploration of the role of different contingencies in the acquisition and performance of classically and operantly conditioned behavior.
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