Abstract
A mobile conjugate reinforcement paradigm was used to assess differences in the acquisition and long-term retention of an operant response in young preterm and full-term infants of equivalent conceptional age. Infants received training on two days separated by 24 hours and a long-term retention session one week later. Full-terms successfully acquired the task in the first session but preterms did not show any significant increase in response rate from baseline until the second day of training. Both groups showed equivalent levels of immediate retention; however, only the full-terms demonstrated reliable long-term retention. Correlational analyses indicated that, regardless of term, long-term forgetting was related to neonatal measures of developmental risk. The data were discussed in terms of the similarities with previously reported ontogenetic changes in learning and memory of full-term infants with the implication being that preterms were more immature than the full-terms.
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