Timing Behavior and Development: Comments on Some Animal and Human Data

This paper discusses timing behavior as measured by Fixed (FI), Differential Reinforcement of Low rate (DRL) or Differential Reinforcement Response Duration (DRRD) performances, in humans and animals at different develop stages. Infants and rats display similar behavior patterns in FI and childhood on, humans develop species-specific behavior patterns in FI, which differ from those of animal species. However, DRL patterns do follow similar trends in animals and humans. These discrepancies and similarities may by the availability of cognitive and linguistic tools in humans, and the degree od schedule constraint on behavior. Motivation and reinforcer variables as well as to a cross-specific timing mechanism (such as scalar timing) are briefly commented upon. Available data tend to show that humans shift from contingency-shaped or "animal-like" behavior, in infancy, to rule-governed behavior. This transition is progressive and does not seem to erase forms of adaptation to temporal constraints that humans share with other species