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:
“To a teacher of languages there comes a time when the world is but a place of many words and man appears a mere talking animal not much more wonderful than a parrot.”
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)
“The two elements the traveler first captures in the big city are extrahuman architecture and furious rhythm. Geometry and anguish. At first glance, the rhythm may be confused with gaiety, but when you look more closely at the mechanism of social life and the painful slavery of both men and machines, you see that it is nothing but a kind of typical, empty anguish that makes even crime and gangs forgivable means of escape.”
—Federico García Lorca (1898–1936)