Staddon, J. E. R., & Higa, J. J. (1999).
The choose-short effect and trace models of timing.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior,
72, 473-478.
The tuned-trace multiple-time-scale (MTS) theory of timing can
account both for the puzzling choose-short effect in
time-discrimination experiments and for the complementary
choose-long effect. But it cannot easily explain why the
choose-short effect seems to disappear when the intertrial and
recall intervals are signaled by different stimuli. Do
differential stimuli actually abolish the effect, or merely
improve memory? If the latter, there are ways in which an
expanded MTS theory might explain differential-context effects in
terms of reduced interference. If the former, there are
observational and experimental ways to determine whether
differential context favors prospective encoding or some other
nontemporal discrimination.
Key words: delayed matching, choose-short, multiple-time-scale
theory, prospective encoding, temporal control, rat, pigeon