The effects of aging in delay and trace human eyeblink conditioning

Normal aging has been shown to impact performance during human eyeblink classical conditioning, with older adults showing lower conditioning levels than younger adults. Previous findings showed younger adults can acquire both delay and trace conditioning concurrently, but it is not known whether older adults can learn under the same conditions. Present results indicated older adults did not produce a significantly greater number of conditioned responses during acquisition, but their ability to time eyeblink responses prior to the unconditioned stimulus was preserved. The decline in eyeblink conditioning that typically accompanies aging has been extended to concurrent presentations of delay and trace conditioning trials.