Recalibrating timing behavior via expected covariance between temporal cues
Abstract
Individuals must predict future events to proactively guide their behavior. Predicting when events will occur is a critical component of these expectations. Temporal expectations are often generated based on individual cue-duration relationships. However, the durations associated with different environmental cues will often co-vary due to a common cause. We show that timing behavior may be calibrated based on this expected covariance, which we refer to as the 'common cause hypothesis'. In five experiments using rats, we found that when the duration associated with one temporal cue changes, timed-responding to other cues shift in the same direction. Furthermore, training subjects that expecting covariance is not appropriate in a given situation blocks this effect. Finally, we confirmed that this transfer is context-dependent. These results reveal a novel principle that modulates timing behavior, which we predict will apply across a variety of magnitude-expectations.
Data availability
Datasets and all functions used for analysis are available as source files associated with the manuscript, both in a compiled (i.e., data/code for all experiments) and figure-specific manner.
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Data from: Recalibrating timing behavior via expected covariance between temporal cuesDryad Digital Repository, doi:10.5061/dryad.cq2862k.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (Scholarship)
- Benjamin J De Corte
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NIH T32NS007421)
- Benjamin J De Corte
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH R15DA039405)
- Matthew S Matell
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NIH F31NS106737)
- Benjamin J De Corte
Kwak-Ferguson Fellowship (Fellowship)
- Benjamin J De Corte
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All procedures accorded with Villanova University's Animal Care and Use Committee guidelines (IACUC, protocol #1880) and the Declaration of Helsinki.
Copyright
© 2018, De Corte et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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