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

Timing ability and numerical competence in rats

J W Breukelaar1, J C Dalrymple-Alford

  • 1University of Canterbury, New Zealand. j.breukelaar@psyc.canterbury.ac.nz

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Animal Behavior Processes
|January 24, 1998
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

Anterior thalamic nuclei neurons sustain memory.

Current research in neurobiology·2022
Same author

Nanopore sequencing of the glucocerebrosidase (GBA) gene in a New Zealand Parkinson's disease cohort.

Parkinsonism & related disorders·2019
Same author

Optogenetic stimulation: Understanding memory and treating deficits.

Hippocampus·2018
Same author

Parkinson's in the oldest old: Impact on estimates of future disease burden.

Parkinsonism & related disorders·2017
Same author

The effect of social isolation of the rat on open field activity and emergence.

Behavioural processes·2014
Same author

Effects of thalamic lesions on repeated relearning of a spatial working memory task.

Behavioural brain research·2013
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 can count, but rely on timing cues when number and time are confounded. This study demonstrates rats

Area of Science:

  • Animal cognition
  • Behavioral neuroscience
  • Psychophysics

Background:

  • Understanding numerical cognition in non-human animals is crucial for comparative psychology.
  • Previous research suggests potential for numerical abilities in rodents, but definitive evidence remains debated.
  • The interplay between temporal and numerical processing in animal behavior requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the capacity for counting and timing in Wistar rats.
  • To determine whether rats prioritize temporal or numerical information when cues conflict.
  • To test the hypothesis that numerical discrimination is a 'last resort' strategy for rats.

Main Methods:

  • Four psychophysical choice experiments were conducted with Wistar rats.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Rats were trained on discrete sound sequences confounding time and number, or with separate signals.
  • Behavioral control by temporal and numerical cues was assessed under various conditions.

    • Main Results:

    • Rats primarily exhibited control by temporal cues when time and number were confounded.
    • Separate training with time- and number-relevant signals led to faster and stronger temporal control.
    • Performance was unaffected by changes in sequence patterns, suggesting non-numerical cue reliance.
    • Even with accurate numerical performance, temporal cues dominated when conflicting with numerical cues.

    Conclusions:

    • Wistar rats demonstrate the ability to count.
    • However, rats prioritize temporal information over numerical information when cues are ambiguous or conflicting.
    • Numerical discrimination appears to be a 'last resort' strategy, employed only when temporal cues are insufficient or absent.