Five-year retention of the classically conditioned eyeblink response in young adult, middle-aged, and older humans.
Human participants who 5 years earlier participated in studies of acquisition of the classically conditioned eyeblink response to a tone conditioned stimulus (CS) and an air puff unconditioned stimulus (UCS) returned to the laboratory to test for retention of the conditioned response (CR). Retention consisted of 20 tone CS-alone presentations. Young adult participants (23-31 years of age at the time of retention testing) showed good retention of the CR (45%), middle-aged participants (45-52 years) showed reduced retention (28%), and older participants (69-78 years) showed little evidence of retention (< 5%). Retention testing was followed by reacquisition of the CR in which the CS and the UCS were again paired. The ability to reacquire the CR also showed a decline with age. The data suggest that the CR can be retained over long intervals and that the degree of retention is age dependent.
Solomon
P R
PR
Department of Psychology, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts 01267, USA. psolomon@williams.edu
Flynn
D
D
Mirak
J
J
Brett
M
M
Coslov
N
N
Groccia
M
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003215:Conditioning, Eyelid / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors