Coffin J M, Woodruff-Pak D S
Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122.
Behav Neurosci. 1993 Feb;107(1):63-71. doi: 10.1037//0735-7044.107.1.63.
Classical conditioning of the nictitating membrane-eyeblink response in young (7 months old) and older (36 months old) New Zealand white rabbits in a delay paradigm with a 400-ms conditioned stimulus-unconditioned stimulus interval was examined for initial acquisition and retention. Older animals required significantly more acquisition trials to reach learning criterion. Age differences in acquisition were temporary. Older rabbits responded at a level comparable to that of young rabbits such that total performance over the 630 trials of acquisition was not different. Rabbits in the explicitly unpaired control groups exhibited no age differences in unconditioned response amplitude or latency measures. Twelve- and 18-month retests demonstrated no significant age effects on retention. Patterns of retention differed between the age groups. Older rabbits required fewer trials to obtain the learning criterion at each phase of testing. Younger rabbits maintained a stable performance throughout training.
在400毫秒条件刺激-非条件刺激间隔的延迟范式中，研究了幼年（7个月大）和老年（36个月大）新西兰白兔瞬膜眨眼反应的经典条件反射，以考察其初始习得和记忆情况。老年动物达到学习标准所需的习得试验显著更多。习得过程中的年龄差异是暂时的。老年兔子的反应水平与幼年兔子相当，因此在630次习得试验中的总体表现并无差异。明确不配对对照组的兔子在非条件反应幅度或潜伏期测量方面没有年龄差异。12个月和18个月的复测表明，年龄对记忆没有显著影响。各年龄组的记忆模式有所不同。老年兔子在每个测试阶段达到学习标准所需的试验较少。幼年兔子在整个训练过程中保持稳定的表现。
