Bidirectional associations in humans and rats

Abstract

In 1 experiment with humans and 3 experiments with rats, the authors sought evidence of temporal integration of independently acquired temporal relationships, including forward and backward temporal associations. The experiments were designed and analyzed in the framework of the temporal coding hypothesis (e.g., L. D. Matzel, F. P. Held, & R. R. Miller, 1988; H. I. Savastano & R. R. Miller, 1998) as a strategy toward illuminating the use of forward and backward temporal associations and assessing the directional nature of these temporal associations. The results obtained suggest that the temporal content of learning about paired events involves a single bidirectional association instead of 2 independent unidirectional, forward and backward, associations.