Comp Psy Ch 6 txtbk

Periodic timing: a primary type of timing for cyclical activity that occurs during a 24-hr period

- Circadian rhythm: a rhythm of activity or physiological state that appears to be the result of an internal clock with an approximate 24-hr cycle

- Entrainment: the process by which the internal circadian rhythm falls into synchrony with the external day/night cycle

- Free-running rhythm: circadian rhythm that does not align exactly with the day/night cycle

Suprachiasmatic nucleus: The area of the brain in the hypothalamus that contains our light-entrained circadian clock. The bridge between the retinal ganglion and pineal gland (hormone secretion)

Interval timing: In interval timing behavior can be influenced by relatively arbitrary, short durations that re signed by relatively arbitrary stimuli that can occur at any time of day

Scalar property- if a stimulus signaled that food could be obtained after 40 seconds, responses peaked at 40 secs and followed a normal distribution, but the curve is much wider than the cure of the 20 second interval

- Temporal generalization- the responses continued for durations that were different yet close to the target duration

- Scalar Expectancy Theory (Pacemaker model): when a to-be-timed event starts, a switch is activated, allowing pulses to be accumulated until the event ends. Then the info in this accumulator is held briefly in WM, and transferred to LTM along with the presence of a reward or not

- Oscillator model: posits the presence of oscillators mechanisms that fluctuate in a rhythmic, sinusoidal manner. for a timed even duration is coded by vectors that represent the phase of each of the oscillators

Approximate number system: Discriminating between 2 durations and discriminating between 2 arrays of objects share a common feature

Relative numerosities: the ability to an approximate quantity in relation to another quantity

o Approximate number system and math skills: several researchers have proposed that this approximate number system forms the foundation for formal mathematical computation and counting
- individual differenced in the approximate number system exist even in infancy
- precision of this system predicts math scored later in development
- training the approximate number system may improve formal math ability

o Analog magnitude representation: a ‘noisy’ representation of a set of items that is proportional to the number of items being represented

o Weber’s law: responses to longer time intervals occur with greater variability

o Parietal cortex: processes magnitude and spatial and movement info, contained somatosensory cortex

• Small set signature: it is possible that there are 2 systems governing discrimination in these cases, and further, the output of one system cannot be compared to the output of the other

o Object tracking system: one of the proposed mechanisms that likely underlies small number discrimination, a small number of mental indexes that point to individual objects and enable people to keep track of them as they move in and out of view

• Operations: procedures on numbers such as addition or subtraction

o Ordinality: the ability for numbers to be ordered in a rank based on their relative magnitudes.