HOW DO MONGOLIAN GERBILS (MERIONES-UNGUICULATUS) PASS THE TIME - ADJUNCTIVE BEHAVIOR DURING TEMPORAL DIFFERENTIATION IN GERBILS

Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus) received training on a tempo ral differentiation task, where reinforcement was contingent on remain ing on a small platform for more than t, and t was varied over a range from 2 to 15 s. Adjunctive behaviors during platform residence were a lso observed. Mean time of residence on the platform almost exactly ma tched the time requirement, and coefficients of variation of residence times remained constant at times above 2 s, in accordance with scalar timing. The rate of adjunctive behaviors varied linearly with reinfor cement rate, as predicted by the behavioral theory of timing (BeT; P. R. Killeen & G. J. Fetterman, 1988). The number of adjunctive behavior s per platform response and the nature of adjunctive sequences were bo th, however, less consistent with BeT predictions.