Document Type

Article

Major

Psychological Sciences | English

Mentor

Prof. Etan Markus, Dept. of Psychological Sciences

Disciplines

Cognition and Perception | Cognitive Science

Abstract

Time estimation is important for survival. Importantly, time estimation is subjective, influenced by a variety of factors.

We used a temporal bisection task (Church & Deluty, 1977) to determine the degree to which a rat “feels” a stimulus is long/short in reference to predetermined anchor durations.

Animals were first trained to respond differently to a short (3s) and long (6s) duration light-cue. This was followed by intermediate duration probes (averaging 4.5s). Most animals treated the intermediate intervals as long. The function varied, some showing a more linear response while others a step function.

The second phase examines longer time estimation, and has thus far only been completed by a cohort of previous pilot rats. These pilots were trained to respond differently to a 30s (short) and 60s (long), or a 60s (short) and 120s (long) duration light-cue, followed by intermediate probe trials. These longer durations were more difficult than the seconds and took subjects far longer to master (60+ sessions).

One objective of this study is to compare the biases and shape of the time estimation function for short (sec) and long (min) intervals within the same animal. The results may indicate different underlying systems for processing episodic time. In the future, we plan on replicating this study with human subjects and also exploring aging factors in time estimation.

Comments

The author thanks the Holster Scholars Program and the UConn Honors Program for funding this research.

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