Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany.
J Cogn Neurosci. 2011 Jan;23(1):41-52. doi: 10.1162/jocn.2009.21364.
In this study, we investigated whether older adults learn more from bad than good choices than younger adults and whether this is reflected in the error-related negativity (ERN). We applied a feedback-based learning task with two learning conditions. In the positive learning condition, participants could learn to choose responses that lead to monetary gains, whereas in the negative learning condition, they could learn to avoid responses that lead to monetary losses. To test the stability of learning preferences, the task involved a reversal phase in which stimulus-response assignments were inverted. Negative learners were defined as individuals that performed better in the negative than in the positive learning condition (and vice versa for positive learners). The behavioral data showed strong individual differences in learning from positive and negative outcomes that persisted throughout the reversal phase and were more pronounced for older than younger adults. Older negative learners showed a stronger tendency to avoid negative outcomes than younger negative learners. However, contrary to younger adults, this negative learning bias was not associated with a larger ERN, suggesting that avoidance learning in older negative learners might be decoupled from error processing. Furthermore, older adults showed learning impairments compared to younger adults. The ERP analyses suggest that these impairments reflect deficits in the ability to build up relational representations of ambiguous outcomes.
在这项研究中，我们调查了老年人是否比年轻人从坏的选择中学习更多，以及这是否反映在错误相关负性波（ERN）中。我们应用了一种基于反馈的学习任务，有两种学习条件。在积极的学习条件下，参与者可以学习选择导致金钱收益的反应，而在消极的学习条件下，他们可以学习避免导致金钱损失的反应。为了测试学习偏好的稳定性，任务涉及反转阶段，其中刺激-反应分配被反转。负向学习者被定义为在负向学习条件下表现优于正向学习条件的个体（反之亦然）。行为数据显示，从积极和消极结果中学习的个体差异很大，这种差异在整个反转阶段都持续存在，并且在老年人中比在年轻人中更为明显。老年负向学习者比年轻负向学习者表现出更强的避免负面结果的倾向。然而，与年轻人不同的是，这种负向学习偏见与更大的 ERN 无关，这表明老年负向学习者的回避学习可能与错误处理脱钩。此外，与年轻人相比，老年人表现出学习障碍。ERP 分析表明，这些障碍反映了建立模糊结果的关系表示的能力缺陷。
