SPATIOTEMPORAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SERIAL CSS AND THEIR RELATION TO SEARCH MODES AND RESPONSE FORM

In four experiments, we examined how the spatiotemporal proximity to f ood of the two elements of a serial conditioned stimulus (CS) influenc ed the pattern of CS-directed versus food-site-directed behavior in ra ts. Experiment 1 showed that only temporal proximity affected respondi ng when the serial CS consisted of two successive 4-sec presentations of either a spatially near or a spatially far lever (NN or FF). Howeve r, Experiment 2 showed that behavior depended markedly on whether rats received a near followed by a far lever (NF) or a far followed by a n ear lever (FN). Experiment 3 showed that the effects of Experiment 2 c ould be changed by increasing the duration of the second CS element, a nd Experiment 4 showed that these changes were not related to previous training. We concluded that behavior produced by the spatiotemporal q ualities of the lever elements can be attributed to a mapping between the temporal qualities of the CS elements and an underlying sequence o f search modes related to finding food.