Acquisition and retention of an avoidance response by rats of different ages.

Rats, 21, 120, and 480 days of age, were given acquisition training in a 1-way avoidance task and tested for retention of the response 1 and 30 days later. Whereas the 480-day-old rats showed poorer performance during acquisition, the 21-day-old rats showed the greatest impairment of long term retention. The results suggest that age differences in performance are due to intrinsic maturational processes.