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
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