EXPLORING THE DYNAMICS OF BEHAVIOR--CHOICE AND TIMING

描述（改编自申请人的摘要）：动物如何学习 在选择中做出选择，以及他们如何在他们的记忆中学习时间线索。 环境，是任何学习理论的持久问题。 这个项目 以动态模型的形式为每个问题提供答案， 提出了一组实验来测试模型。 选择的模式 假设在重复选择的情况下，三个因素决定了 获得对更好的选择的偏好：总体奖励率， 当地奖励率的可辨别性，以及 响应/奖励反馈。 此外，该模型预测，当动物 发展部分偏好，并显示局部反应模式，渐近 这些图案的强度也是前述因素的函数。 五个实验将使用鸽子来测试模型的预测， 摩尔选择性的获得和 行为 定时模型假设在时间期间行为状态的连续激活。 interreward间隔，一个学习过程，耦合的状态与 工具响应，以及将状态映射到响应率或 概率 用鸽子做的四个实验将测试模型的 在三个时间任务中描述学习过程，固定的， 间隔时间表，时间间隔的平分，和心理测量 procedure. 综合起来，这些实验将有助于回答一系列基本问题。 关于选择和时机的过程的问题：偏好是如何 获得的？ 摩尔结构和选择的分子结构是如何联系的？ 当奖励基于时间时，动物会学到什么？ 如何学习 过程影响时间判断？ 拟议工作的一个共同特点是 这是对行为和学习的动态的持续强调。

DESCRIPTION (adapted from applicant's abstract): How animals learn to choose among alternatives, and how they learn about temporal cues in their environment, are enduring problems for any theory of learning. This project suggests an answer to each question in the form of a dynamic model, and proposes a set of experiments to test the models. The model for choice assumes that in recurrent choice situations, three factors determine how preference for the better alternative is acquired: the overall reward rate, the discriminability of the local reward rates, and the degree of response/reward feedback. In addition, the model predicts that when animals develop partial preferences and show local response patterns, the asymptotic strength of these patterns is also a function of the preceding factors. Five experiments will use pigeons to test the model's predictions concerning the acquisition of molar preference and the molecular organization of behavior. The timing model assumes a serial activation of behavioral states during the interreward interval, a learning process that couples the states with the instrumental response, and a rule mapping the states onto response rate or probability. Four experiments with pigeons will test the model's description of the learning process in three temporal tasks, fixed -- interval schedules, the bisection of temporal intervals, and a psychometric procedure. Taken together, the experiments will help to answer a set of fundamental questions about the processes of choice and timing: How are preferences acquired? How are the molar and the molecular structures of choice related? What do animals learn when rewards are time based? How do learning processes affect temporal judgements? A common feature of the work proposed here is the continual emphasis on the dynamics of behavior and learning.