[Exaltation phenomenon during the teaching of an instrumental defense reflex to animals of various ages].

Dogs of 1.5 and 7 months and rats of 15, 20, 30, 45, 60, 80, and 100 days of age were given acquisition training in an escape task. The previous observations suggested that difficulties in defensive conditioning typically found in young animals were connected with their generalized perception of Igarning conditions. To facilitate the discrimination of the environmental factors a conditioned signal was not applied and the home cage was used as a "safe" compartment. The intertrial intervals were increased up to 2 hours for dogs and 24 hours for rats. Under such conditions an acquisition of escape reaction was most rapid in animals of early age. The period of effective learning (exaltation) in rats began from 20 and lasted to 60 days of age, the maximal efficiency being observed at 20 days. Pups of 1.5 months had learned more quickly than those of 7 months of age. Variations of learning efficiency in ontogeny of rats were positively correlated with changes of correct escape reaction search activity. Phenomenon of learning exaltation in ontogeny was supposed to be connected with the high level of activity of perception and association cerebral mechanisms being the result of immaturity of inhibitory structures.