Bartus R T, Dean R L, Fleming D L
J Gerontol. 1979 Mar;34(2):209-19. doi: 10.1093/geronj/34.2.209.
The behavior of aged rhesus monkeys (18 years and older) was compared to that of young monkeys (3 to 6 years old) to evaluate their relative abilities to learn a series of visual discrimination and discrimination reversal problems. Using a subject-paced, automated experimental procedure designed to optimize stimulus control and facilitate execution of choice responses, no consistent age-related differences were observed in the ability to learn new color and pattern discrimination problems of varying difficulty. However, a severe and consistent deficity on reversal learning did occur. A detailed analysis of this deficit revealed that not only did the aged monkeys take longer to extinguish the old habit and return to chance performance, but they continued to display a deficit in establishing accurate performance at above-chance levels as well. Since no reliable age differences were observed on the original discrimination learning problems, these data suggest that aging impairs mechanisms involved with response rigidity and/or susceptibility to intertrial proactive interference, more severely than those involved with the simple formation of new associations.
将18岁及以上的老年恒河猴的行为与3至6岁的幼年恒河猴的行为进行比较，以评估它们学习一系列视觉辨别和辨别反转问题的相对能力。使用一种以受试者为节奏的自动化实验程序，该程序旨在优化刺激控制并促进选择反应的执行，在学习不同难度的新颜色和图案辨别问题的能力方面，未观察到与年龄相关的一致差异。然而，在反转学习中确实出现了严重且一致的缺陷。对这一缺陷的详细分析表明，老年猴子不仅需要更长的时间来消除旧习惯并恢复到随机表现水平，而且在建立高于随机水平的准确表现方面也持续存在缺陷。由于在最初的辨别学习问题上未观察到可靠的年龄差异，这些数据表明，衰老对与反应僵化和/或试验间前摄干扰易感性相关的机制的损害，比对与简单形成新关联相关的机制的损害更为严重。
