Problem solving in elderly sophisticated and naive monkeys.

M A Novak; S J Suomi; R E Bowman; D Mohr

doi:10.1093/geronj/46.3.p102

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Problem solving in elderly sophisticated and naive monkeys.

M A Novak·S J Suomi·R E Bowman·D Mohr

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Abstract

Elderly (greater than 23 years) rhesus monkeys, some of whom had previous learning test experience, were tested on a standardized battery of discrimination and concept-formation tasks, and their performance was compared with that of test-naive middle-aged (15 years) and juvenile (2 years) monkeys. Naive elderly monkeys performed more poorly on virtually all tasks compared to their younger counterparts. In contrast, test-experienced elderly monkeys outperformed both middle-aged and juvenile monkeys on those problem types with which they had limited previous experience, despite the fact that 8-10 years had passed since their prior training. However, test-experienced elderly monkeys did not display superior performance on new tests that approximated visual acuity or assessed delayed discrimination capabilities.

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Aging Animals Discrimination Learning Macaca mulatta Pattern Recognition, Visual Problem Solving Reaction Time Visual Acuity Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

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M A Novak, S J Suomi, R E Bowman, D Mohr. 1991. Problem solving in elderly sophisticated and naive monkeys.. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronj%2F46.3.p102

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