Fig. 1.

Anticipation of a meal reduced sensitivity to time in an ongoing interval-duration classification task near the meal time. Sensitivity to time in the ongoing task declined near the meal time in the meal group but not in the no-meal group. The probability of judging an interval as long (a) increased as a function of the interval duration. Sensitivity to time, as measured by the slope of the probability function (b) declined immediately before the end of the daily session in the meal group (a) but not in the no-meal group (not shown). Importantly, the interaction between early and late variable is significant in the meal group (a, p < 0.001) but not in the no-meal group (p = 0.1), and these differences are significant as shown by the three-way interaction (p < 0.009). Similarly, the slope of the psychophysical function was smaller at the late relative to early time points (p = 0.009) in the meal group but not in the no-meal group (p = 0.8), and these differences are significant as shown by the interaction (p = 0.03). The meal group anticipated the arrival of the meal, as shown by the increase in food-trough responses before the meal whereas the increase in food-trough responses was absent in the no-meal group (c). (a-c) Error bars indicate SEM. Reproduced from Wilson, A. G. & Crystal, J. D. (2012). Prospective memory in the rat. Animal Cognition. 15, 349-358. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.