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Author Neuringer, A. doi  openurl
  Title Reinforced variability in animals and people: implications for adaptive action Type Journal Article
  Year 2004 Publication The American Psychologist Abbreviated Journal Am Psychol  
  Volume 59 Issue 9 Pages 891-906  
  Keywords Animals; Behavior, Animal; *Choice Behavior; Conditioning, Operant; Creativeness; Discrimination (Psychology); Humans; Memory; Problem Solving; *Reinforcement (Psychology)  
  Abstract Although reinforcement often leads to repetitive, even stereotyped responding, that is not a necessary outcome. When it depends on variations, reinforcement results in responding that is diverse, novel, indeed unpredictable, with distributions sometimes approaching those of a random process. This article reviews evidence for the powerful and precise control by reinforcement over behavioral variability, evidence obtained from human and animal-model studies, and implications of such control. For example, reinforcement of variability facilitates learning of complex new responses, aids problem solving, and may contribute to creativity. Depression and autism are characterized by abnormally repetitive behaviors, but individuals afflicted with such psychopathologies can learn to vary their behaviors when reinforced for so doing. And reinforced variability may help to solve a basic puzzle concerning the nature of voluntary action.  
  Address (up) Department of Psychology, Reed College, Portland, OR 97202, USA. allen.neuringer@reed.edu  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Place of Publication Editor  
  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0003-066X ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:15584823 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4106  
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Author Devenport, J.A.; Patterson, M.R.; Devenport, L.D. doi  openurl
  Title Dynamic averaging and foraging decisions in horses (Equus callabus) Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication Journal of Comparative psychology Abbreviated Journal J. Comp. Psychol.  
  Volume 119 Issue 3 Pages 352-358  
  Keywords Animals; *Decision Making; *Feeding Behavior; Female; Horses/*psychology; Male; *Memory, Short-Term; Motivation; Orientation; *Social Environment  
  Abstract The variability of most environments taxes foraging decisions by increasing the uncertainty of the information available. One solution to the problem is to use dynamic averaging, as do some granivores and carnivores. Arguably, the same strategy could be useful for grazing herbivores, even though their food renews and is more homogeneously distributed. Horses (Equus callabus) were given choices between variable patches after short or long delays. When patch information was current, horses returned to the patch that was recently best, whereas those without current information matched choices to the long-term average values of the patches. These results demonstrate that a grazing species uses dynamic averaging and indicate that, like granivores and carnivores, they can use temporal weighting to optimize foraging decisions.  
  Address (up) Department of Psychology, University of Central Oklahoma, 73034, USA. jdevenport@ucok.edu  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0735-7036 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:16131264 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 752  
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Author Zentall, T.R. doi  openurl
  Title Timing, memory for intervals, and memory for untimed stimuli: the role of instructional ambiguity Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication Behavioural processes Abbreviated Journal Behav. Process.  
  Volume 70 Issue 3 Pages 209-222  
  Keywords Animals; *Attention; Columbidae; *Discrimination Learning; *Memory, Short-Term; Practice (Psychology); Reinforcement Schedule; *Retention (Psychology); *Time Perception  
  Abstract Theories of animal timing have had to account for findings that the memory for the duration of a timed interval appears to be dramatically shorted within a short time of its termination. This finding has led to the subjective shortening hypothesis and it has been proposed to account for the poor memory that animals appear to have for the initial portion of a timed interval when a gap is inserted in the to-be-timed signal. It has also been proposed to account for the poor memory for a relatively long interval that has been discriminated from a shorter interval. I suggest here a simpler account in which ambiguity between the gap or retention interval and the intertrial interval results in resetting the clock, rather than forgetting the interval. The ambiguity hypothesis, together with a signal salience mechanism that determines how quickly the clock is reset at the start of the intertrial interval can account for the results of the reported timing experiments that have used the peak procedure. Furthermore, instructional ambiguity rather than memory loss may account for the results of many animal memory experiments that do not involve memory for time.  
  Address (up) Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, 202B Kastle Hall, Lexington, KY 40506-0044, USA. zentall@uky.edu  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Place of Publication Editor  
  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0376-6357 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:16095851 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 222  
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Author Roper, K.L.; Zentall, T.R. openurl 
  Title Directed forgetting in animals Type Journal Article
  Year 1993 Publication Psychological bulletin Abbreviated Journal Psychol Bull  
  Volume 113 Issue 3 Pages 513-532  
  Keywords Animals; Behavior, Animal; *Cognition; Columbidae; Conditioning (Psychology); Discrimination Learning; Female; Humans; Male; Memory Disorders/*psychology; Reinforcement (Psychology); Task Performance and Analysis  
  Abstract Directed-forgetting research with animals suggests that animals show disrupted test performance only under certain conditions. Important variables are (a) whether during training, the cue to forget (F cue) signals nonreward (i.e., that the trial is over) versus reward (i.e., that reinforcement can be obtained) and (b) given that reinforcement can be obtained on F-cue trials, whether the post-F-cue response pattern is compatible with the baseline memory task. It is proposed that some findings of directed forgetting can be attributed to trained response biases, whereas others may be attributable perhaps to frustration-produced interference. It is suggested that directed forgetting in animals should be studied using procedures similar to those used to study directed forgetting in humans. This can be accomplished by presenting, within a trial, both to-be-remembered and to-be-forgotten material.  
  Address (up) Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0033-2909 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:8316612 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 259  
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Author Zentall, T.R. doi  openurl
  Title Support for a theory of memory for event duration must distinguish between test-trial ambiguity and actual memory loss Type Journal Article
  Year 1999 Publication Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior Abbreviated Journal J Exp Anal Behav  
  Volume 72 Issue 3 Pages 467-472  
  Keywords Animals; Behavior, Animal/physiology; Columbidae; Conditioning, Operant/physiology; Discrimination Learning/physiology; Memory/*physiology; *Psychological Theory; Time Factors; Time Perception/physiology  
  Abstract Staddon and Higa's (1999) trace-strength theory of timing and memory for event duration can account for pigeons' bias to “choose short” when retention intervals are introduced and to “choose long” when, following training with a fixed retention interval, retention intervals are shortened. However, it does not account for the failure of pigeons to choose short when the intertrial interval is distinct from the retention interval. That finding suggests that stimulus generalization (or ambiguity) between the intertrial interval and the retention interval may result in an effect that has been attributed to memory loss. Such artifacts must be eliminated before a theory of memory for event duration can be adequately tested.  
  Address (up) Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506, USA. zentall@pop.uky.edu  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0022-5002 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:10605105 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 251  
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Author Zentall, T.R. openurl 
  Title A cognitive behaviorist approach to the study of animal behavior Type Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication The Journal of general psychology Abbreviated Journal J Gen Psychol  
  Volume 129 Issue 4 Pages 328-363  
  Keywords Animals; *Attention; *Behavior, Animal; *Cognition; Learning; *Memory; Social Behavior  
  Abstract Traditional psychological approaches to animal learning and behavior have involved either the atheoretical behaviorist approach proposed by B. F. Skinner (1938), in which input-output relations are described in response to environmental manipulations, or the theoretical behaviorist approach offered by C. L Hull (1943), in which associations mediated by several hypothetical constructs and intervening variables are formed between stimuli and responses. Recently, the application of a cognitive behaviorist approach to animal learning and behavior has been found to have considerable value as a research tool. This perspective has grown out of E. C. Tolman's cognitive approach to learning in which behavior is mediated by mechanisms that are not directly observable but can be inferred from the results of critical experiments. In the present article, the author presents several examples of the successful application of the cognitive behaviorist approach. In each case, the experiments have been designed to distinguish between more traditional mechanisms and those mediated by hypothesized internal representations. These examples were selected because the evidence suggests that some form of active cognitive organization is needed to account for the behavioral results.  
  Address (up) Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506, USA. Zentall@uky.edu  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0022-1309 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:12494989 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 214  
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Author Zentall, T.R.; Clement, T.S.; Bhatt, R.S.; Allen, J. openurl 
  Title Episodic-like memory in pigeons Type Journal Article
  Year 2001 Publication Psychonomic bulletin & review Abbreviated Journal Psychon Bull Rev  
  Volume 8 Issue 4 Pages 685-690  
  Keywords Animals; Behavior, Animal/physiology; Columbidae; Memory, Short-Term/*physiology; Teaching  
  Abstract It has been proposed that memory for personal experiences (episodic memory, rather than semantic memory) relies on the conscious review of past experience and thus is unique to humans. In an attempt to demonstrate episodic-like memory in animals, we first trained pigeons to respond to the (nonverbal) question “Did you just peck or did you just refrain from pecking?” by training them on a symbolic matching task with differential responding required to the two line-orientation samples and reinforcing the choice of a red comparison if they had pecked and the choice of a green comparison if they had not pecked. Then, in Experiment 1, after providing the conditions for (but not requiring) the pigeons to peck at one new stimulus (a yellow hue) but not at another (a blue hue), we tested them with the new hue stimuli and the red and green comparisons. In Experiment 2, we tested the pigeons with novel stimuli (a circle, which they spontaneously pecked, and a dark response key, which they did not peck) and the red and green comparisons. In both experiments, pigeons chose the comparison appropriate to the response made to the test stimulus. Thus, the pigeons demonstrated that they could remember specific details about their past experiences, a result consistent with the notion that they have the capacity for forming episodic-like memories.  
  Address (up) Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506-0044, USA. zentall@pop.uky.edu  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1069-9384 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:11848586 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 243  
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Author Zentall, T.R.; Clement, T.S. openurl 
  Title Memory mechanisms in pigeons: evidence of base-rate neglect Type Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process  
  Volume 28 Issue 1 Pages 111-115  
  Keywords Animals; Columbidae; Discrimination Learning; Memory/*physiology; Random Allocation; Reaction Time; Reinforcement (Psychology); Retention (Psychology)  
  Abstract In delayed matching to sample, once acquired, pigeons presumably choose comparisons according to their memory for (the strength of) the sample. When memory for the sample is sufficiently weak, comparison choice should depend on the history of reinforcement associated with each of the comparison stimuli. In the present research, pigeons acquired two matching tasks in which Sample S1 was associated with one comparison from each task, C1 and C3, whereas Sample S2 was associated with Comparison C2, and Sample S3 was associated with Comparison C4. As the retention interval increased, the pigeons showed a bias to choose the comparison (C1 or C3) associated with the more frequently occurring sample (S1). Thus, pigeons were sensitive also to the (irrelevant) likelihood that each of the samples was presented. The results suggest that pigeons may allow their reference memory for the overall sample frequency to influence comparison choice, independent of the comparison stimuli present.  
  Address (up) Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0044, USA. zentall@pop.uky.edu  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Place of Publication Editor  
  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0097-7403 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:11868229 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 242  
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Author Zentall, T.R.; Kaiser, D.H. doi  openurl
  Title Interval timing with gaps: gap ambiguity as an alternative to temporal decay Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process  
  Volume 31 Issue 4 Pages 484-486  
  Keywords Animals; Behavior, Animal; Discrimination (Psychology)/*physiology; Memory/*physiology; Rats; Time Perception/*physiology  
  Abstract C. V. Buhusi, D. Perera, and W. H. Meck (2005) proposed a hypothesis of timing in rats to account for the results of experiments that have used the peak procedure with gaps. According to this hypothesis, the introduction of a gap causes the animal's memory for the pregap interval to passively decay (subjectively shorten) in direct proportion to the duration and salience of the gap. Thus, animals should pause with short, nonsalient gaps but should reset their clock with longer, salient gaps. The present authors suggest that the ambiguity of the gap (i.e., the similarity between the gap and the intertrial interval in both appearance and relative duration) causes the animal to actively reset the clock and prevents adequate assessments of the fate of timed intervals prior to the gap. Furthermore, when the intertrial interval is discriminable from the gap, the evidence suggests that timed intervals prior to the gap are not lost but are retained in memory.  
  Address (up) Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA. zentall@uky.edu  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0097-7403 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:16248734 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 220  
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Author Zentall, T.R. doi  openurl
  Title Mental time travel in animals: a challenging question Type Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication Behavioural processes Abbreviated Journal Behav. Process.  
  Volume 72 Issue 2 Pages 173-183  
  Keywords Animals; *Behavior, Animal; Columbidae; Concept Formation; Conditioning, Operant; *Imagination; *Memory; Mental Recall; Planning Techniques; Rats; *Time Perception; Transfer (Psychology)  
  Abstract Humans have the ability to mentally recreate past events (using episodic memory) and imagine future events (by planning). The best evidence for such mental time travel is personal and thus subjective. For this reason, it is particularly difficult to study such behavior in animals. There is some indirect evidence, however, that animals have both episodic memory and the ability to plan for the future. When unexpectedly asked to do so, animals can report about their recent past experiences (episodic memory) and they also appear to be able to use the anticipation of a future event as the basis for a present action (planning). Thus, the ability to imagine past and future events may not be uniquely human.  
  Address (up) Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0044, USA. zentall@uky.edu  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
  Publisher Place of Publication Editor  
  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0376-6357 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:16466863 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 218  
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