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TIME, TRACE, MEMORY
Author(s) -
Staddon J. E. R.,
Higa J. J.,
Chelaru I. M.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of the experimental analysis of behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1938-3711
pISSN - 0022-5002
DOI - 10.1901/jeab.1999.71-293
Subject(s) - trace (psycholinguistics) , computer science , variance (accounting) , expectancy theory , interval (graph theory) , range (aeronautics) , cognitive psychology , artificial intelligence , econometrics , psychology , mathematics , social psychology , philosophy , linguistics , materials science , accounting , combinatorics , business , composite material
Objections to a trace hypothesis for interval timing do not apply to the multiple‐time‐scale (MTS) theory, which incorporates a dynamic trace tuned by the system history and can easily accommodate interval timing over a 1,000:1 range. The MTS model can also account for Weber's law as well as systematic deviations from it. Contrary to our critics, we contend that patterns of variance in interval timing experiments are not fully described by scalar expectancy theory, and that attempting to understand timing by assigning variance to different elements of a flexible model that lacks inductive support is a flawed strategy, because the attempt may be successful even if the model is wrong. We further argue that biological plausibility is an unreliable guide to the development of behavioral theory, that prediction is not the same as test, that induction should precede deduction, and that a rat is not a clock.