title: Classical eyeblink conditioning in adulthood: effects of age and interstimulus interval on acquisition in the trace paradigm.
abstract: Effects of age and interstimulus interval (ISI) were examined in eyeblink classical conditioning with a trace paradigm. Sixty young adults were trained in Experiment 1 with 6 interstimulus intervals (ISIs): 400, 900, 1,200, 1,500, 1,800, and 2,100 ms. The purpose was to find an ISI value for humans that would result in nonoptimal acquisition. ISIs of 1,200 ms and longer were nonoptimal. Adults aged 17-81 years were trained in Experiment 2 with a nonoptimal 1,800-ms ISI in the trace paradigm. Young and middle-aged subjects demonstrated equivalent levels of acquisition, and only older subjects conditioned more poorly. Aging appears to affect conditioning in the long-ISI trace paradigm as well as in the short-ISI delay paradigm.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122.
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Finkbiner
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Woodruff-Pak
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over / Q000523:psychology; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001143:Arousal; D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D003215:Conditioning, Eyelid; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time; D012016:Reference Values