Relative versus absolute stimulus control in the temporal bisection task.
Pigeons learn time-based choices faster when each duration always maps to the same response.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Marilia and team worked with pigeons in a temporal bisection task. Birds had to peck one key after a short tone and another key after a long tone.
The researchers switched between two rules. In the absolute rule, the same two tones always meant left or right. In the relative rule, the birds had to judge if the current tone was the shorter or longer one in that session.
What they found
Pigeons learned the absolute rule faster. They reached high accuracy in fewer sessions when the tones always mapped to the same keys.
Under the relative rule, learning was slower. Birds had to re-learn which tone was short or long every time the pair changed.
How this fits with other research
Rutter et al. (1987) showed that reinforcer size can bias temporal choices. Marilia’s study adds that the way you arrange the cues also matters. Absolute mappings speed up learning.
McGonigle et al. (1982) found that brief immediate stimuli help pigeons learn delayed-reward tasks. Marilia’s absolute condition used fixed, immediate tone-key links, giving the same quick-acquisition boost.
Together, these papers say: keep the cue-response link constant when you want fast mastery.
Why it matters
When you teach time-based concepts, pick one signal for one response and stick with it. Switching between relative rules slows learners down. Use absolute stimulus control first, then fade to relational tasks only after mastery.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
When subjects learn to associate two sample durations with two comparison keys, do they learn to associate the keys with the short and long samples (relational hypothesis), or with the specific sample durations (absolute hypothesis)? We exposed 16 pigeons to an ABA design in which phases A and B corresponded to tasks using samples of 1 s and 4 s, or 4 s and 16 s. Across phases, we varied the mapping between the samples and the keys. For group Relative, short and long samples were always associated with the same keys (e.g., Phase A: '1s→ Left, 4s→ Right'; Phase B: '4s→ Left, 16s→ Right'); for group Absolute, the 4-s sample was associated always with the same key (e.g., Phase A: '1s→ Left, 4s→ Right'; Phase B: '16s→ Left, 4s→ Right'). If temporal control is relational, group Relative should learn the new task faster than group Absolute, but if temporal control is absolute, the opposite should occur. We compared the results with the predictions of the Learning-to-Time (LeT) model, which accounts for temporal discrimination in terms of absolute stimulus control and stimulus generalization. The acquisition curves of the two groups were generally consistent with LeT and therefore more consistent with the absolute than the relative hypothesis.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 2012 · doi:10.1901/jeab.2012.98-23