Reward Magnitude Effects on Temporal Discrimination

Changes in reward magnitude or value have been reported to produce effects on timing behavior, which have been attributed to changes in the speed of an internal pacemaker in some instances and to attentional factors in other cases. The present experiments therefore aimed to clarify the effects of reward magnitude on timing processes. In Experiment 1, rats were trained to discriminate a short (2 s) vs. a long (8 s) signal followed by testing with intermediate durations. Then, the reward on short or long trials was increased from 1 to 4 pellets in separate groups. Experiment 2 measured the effect of different reward magnitudes associated with the short vs. long signals throughout training. Finally, Experiment 3 controlled for satiety effects during the reward magnitude manipulation phase. A general flattening of the psychophysical function was evident in all three experiments, suggesting that unequal reward magnitudes may disrupt attention to duration.