Dissociating time and number in reinforcement rate learning

Abstract

Animals are highly sensitive to the temporal properties of predictive cues 1, a feature of learning unexplained by traditional trial-based associative theories of learning 2-4. It has been proposed that animals symbolically encode temporal durations in order to extract statistical information about events, such as the reinforcement rate during a cues presentation 5,6. Thus, long-duration cues elicit weaker responding than short-duration cues ( cue duration effect), because they signal a lower rate of reinforcement 7,8. An alternative, simple account is that time-dependent changes in stimulus processing, such as short-term habituation, lead to the effect of cue duration on learning 9,10, with attention decreasing throughout the duration of a cue, limitin ...