Age-related psychophysiological parameters of associative learning with reinforcement

Abstract

Associative learning is a cognitive function that ensures adaptive behavior and safe functioning. It includes a set of cognitive processes involving neural networks of interested areas of the brain responsible for information processing, executive control, sensorimotor coordination, and the subjective experience of reward and punishment, and depends on their integration with each other and feedback signals. The identification of psychophysiological patterns of the normal development of cognitive function is important for understanding its mechanisms, establishing age norms, and early identification of developmental abnormalities. The research aims to study the age-related dynamics of learning with reinforcement in children using a deterministic learning paradigm. It was revealed that the rate of sensorimotor reaction (SR) to visual stimuli is significantly higher in older children, and the temporal dynamics of SR change with age: at the early stages of learning, SR increases in both age groups, and at the later stages, it decreases in younger children and reaches a "plateau" in older children. The similarity of the pattern of SR fluctuations in the early and late stages of learning is shown: SR growth in the late stages of learning relative to the early ones in both age groups. The observed age patterns may indicate the peculiarities of the development of learning mechanisms. The results obtained can be useful for the development of modern approaches to the diagnosis of developmental disorders in children, their correction in the learning process, and in planning the educational load at school.