Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Periodic behavior in a random environment

H A Broadbent1

  • 1Department of Psychology, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912.

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Animal Behavior Processes
|April 1, 1994
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Systematic nonlinearities in the memory representation of time.

Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes·1997
Same author

Preferred rates of repetitive tapping and categorical time production.

Perception & psychophysics·1994
Same author

Categorical time production: evidence for discrete timing in motor control.

Perception & psychophysics·1992
Same author

Alternative representations of time, number, and rate.

Cognition·1990
Same journal

The fate of redundant cues in human predictive learning.

Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes·2013
Same journal

The adaptive analysis of visual cognition using genetic algorithms.

Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes·2013
Same journal

Active change detection by pigeons and humans.

Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes·2013
Same journal

Renewal effects in interference between outcomes as measured by a cued response reaction time task: further evidence for associative retrieval models.

Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes·2013
Same journal

Pigeons use low rather than high spatial frequency information to make visual category discriminations.

Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes·2013
Same journal

Associative models of instrumental learning: a response to Dupuis and Dawson.

Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes·2013
See all related articles

Rats exhibit periodic searching in random environments, showing multiple time scales not explained by current theories. A connectionist model better accounts for these complex periodic behaviors.

Area of Science:

  • Behavioral neuroscience
  • Animal behavior
  • Cognitive psychology

Background:

  • Animals often exhibit periodic searching patterns, even in unpredictable environments.
  • Existing theories struggle to explain multiple periodicities observed in animal behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the periodic searching tendencies of rats in temporally random environments.
  • To evaluate the explanatory power of different theoretical models for observed periodicities.

Main Methods:

  • Rats were exposed to random-interval (RI) schedules with 60-s and 120-s intervals.
  • Power spectral analysis was used to identify periodicities in the rats' responding patterns.

Main Results:

  • A primary periodicity of 20-50 seconds was observed across all conditions.

Related Experiment Videos

  • A secondary, shorter periodicity (5-10 seconds) was most prominent under the RI 60-s schedule.
  • Multiple periodicities were not predicted by optimality theory or single-oscillator scalar expectancy theory.

    • Conclusions:

    • Observed multiple periodicities in rat responding are inconsistent with traditional timing theories.
    • A connectionist version of scalar expectancy theory, with emergent nonscalar properties, provides a better framework for understanding these complex periodic behaviors.