Pigeons and rats observe signals of when but not where food will occur

Pigeons and rats were exposed to a mixed variable-time extinction schedule of reinforcement. During the variable-time component of the schedule, response-independent food was delivered at either a left or a right feeder. The animals were allowed to perform observing responses to produce either stimuli paired with the component of the mixed schedule that was in effect (temporal information) or stimuli paired with the feeder that might deliver food (spatial information). Only stimuli conveying temporal information reinforced observing. This result contradicts a prediction of the “information hypothesis” of observing, but is consistent with various conditioned-reinforcement interpretations of observing.