Behavioral rigidity as a mechanism for facilitation of problem solving for aged rats.
Mature-young 5-mo.-old and aged 25-mo.-old rats (N=28 of each age group) at the same level of motivation were given forced-correct-response training trials on a 14 unit T-maze by blocking off all wrong turns. During later test trials in the maze, when the 14 culs-de-sac were open, aged rats made significantly fewer errors than mature-young rats. The effect of distribution of test trials were relatively minor, but comparison of distributed practice groups with control groups not given forced-correct-response training also indicated a strong differential age effect of training procedure on the reduction of errors during test trials. The deleterious effect of age on learning and problem solving is not immutable.
D000367:Age Factors; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D005106:Exploratory Behavior; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011340:Problem Solving; D051381:Rats; D012201:Reward