Animal Mechanism
The clock and memory are driven by a discrete pacemaker-accumulator mechanism that yields a linear scale for encoded time. The scalar expectancy theory posits that animals make choices based on a single sample. The animals are posited to make estimates of the time to reinforcement delivery using a scalar-timing process. This scalar-timing process rescales estimates for different values of the interval being timed. Scalar-timing implies a constant coefficient of variation. Expectations or reinforcement are based on these estimates are formed from these sample. The animal discriminates between response alternatives by taking the ratio of their expectancies. A number of alternatives have been developed over the years. These include Killeen’s Behavioral Theory of timing (BeT) model and Machado’s learning-to-time (LeT) model.
Read more about this topic: Scalar Expectancy
Famous quotes containing the words animal and/or mechanism:
“... these great improvements of modern times are blessings or curses on us, just in the same ratio as the mental, moral, and religious rule over the animal; or the animal propensities of our nature predominate over the intellectual and moral. The spider elaborates poison from the same flower, in which the bee finds materials out of which she manufactures honey.”
—Harriot K. Hunt (1805–1875)
“Life is an offensive, directed against the repetitious mechanism of the Universe.”
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947)