Learning in the temporal bisection task: relative or absolute?

We examined whether temporal learning in a bisection task is absolute or relational. Eight pigeons learned to choose a red key after a t-seconds sample and a green key after a 3t-seconds sample. To determine whether they had learned a relative mapping (short -> Red, long -> Green) or an absolute mapping (t-seconds -> Red, 3t-seconds -> Green), the pigeons then learned a series of new discriminations in which either the relative or the absolute mapping was maintained. Results showed that the generalization gradient obtained at the end of a discrimination predicted the pattern of choices made during the first session of a new discrimination. Moreover, most acquisition curves and generalization gradients were consistent with the predictions of the learning-to-time model, a Spencean model that instantiates absolute learning with temporal generalization. In the bisection task, the basis of temporal discrimination seems to be absolute, not relational.
The authors were supported by grants from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT SFRH/BD/73875/2010 and PTDC/MHC-PCN/3540/2012). The study was conducted at the Psychology Research Centre of the University of Minho, and was partially supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science through national funds and cofinanced by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (UID/PSI/01662/2013). The authors thank Catarina Soares and Margarida Monteiro for helping with data collection, and the members of the Animal Learning and Behavior Lab for comments on a first version of the manuscript. Results reported here were presented at the 26th Meeting of the Spanish Society for Comparative Psychology, Braga, Portugal, and at the 2014 Annual Symposium of the Society for the Quantitative Analysis of Behavior, Chicago, Illinois.
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