Across the lifespan, the performance in problem-solving tasks varies strongly, owing to age-related variation in cognitive abilities as well as the motivation to engage in a task. Non-human primates provide an evolutionary perspective on human cognitive and motivational ageing, as they lack an insight into their own limited lifetime, and ageing trajectories are not affected by customs and societal norms. To test age-related variation in inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility and persistence, we presented Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus), living at La Forêt des Singes in Rocamadour (France), with three problem-solving tasks. We conducted 297 trials with 143 subjects aged 2–30 years. We found no effect of age on success and latency to succeed in the inhibitory control task. In the cognitive flexibility task, 21 out of 99 monkeys were able to switch their strategy, but there was no evidence for an effect of age. Yet, the persistence in the motivation task as well as the overall likelihood to participate in any of the tasks declined with increasing age. These results suggest that motivation declines earlier than the cognitive abilities assessed in this study, corroborating the notion that non-human primates and humans show similar changes in motivation in old age.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘Evolution of the primate ageing process'.

在整个生命周期中，由于与年龄相关的认知能力以及参与任务的动机，解决问题的任务的表现差异很大。非人类的灵长类动物对人类的认知和动机性衰老提供了进化的观点，因为他们对自己有限的寿命缺乏洞察力，并且衰老的轨迹不受习俗和社会规范的影响。为了测试与年龄相关的抑制控制，认知灵活性和持久性变化，我们提出了巴巴猕猴（Macaca sylvanus），居住在法国罗卡马杜尔的LaForêtdes Singes，负责解决三个问题。我们对143位2至30岁的受试者进行了297次试验。我们发现年龄对抑制控制任务的成功和潜伏期没有影响。在认知灵活性任务中，99只猴子中有21只能够改变其策略，但没有证据显示年龄会影响。然而，随着年龄的增长，动机任务的持久性以及参与任何任务的总体可能性降低了。这些结果表明，动机的下降比本研究中评估的认知能力更早，这证实了非人类的灵长类动物和人类在老年时动机表现出相似变化的观点。

本文是“灵长类动物衰老过程的演变”主题问题的一部分。