Abstract

WONG, Cristina E. Izábal; BRANCO, Laura  and  COTRENA, Charles. Visual episodic memory in aging: a comparative study between young and elderly adults. Neuropsicologia Latinoamericana [online]. 2015, vol.7, n.1, pp. 47-56. ISSN 2075-9479.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5579/rnl.2013.0254.

The aim of this study was to investigate within- and between-group differences in visual memory, immediate and delayed recall and visual reproduction in younger (YA) and older adults (OA) using the Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT). Each group was composed of 20 participants with at least 9 years of education. YA obtained significantly higher scores than OA in measures of immediate and delayed recall, as well as visual reproduction. OA made more errors in delayed recall (omission, substitution and others types of errors), immediate recall (substitution) and visual reproduction (size errors). These results suggest that aging may be associated with impairments in attention, memory and inhibitory control. Future studies involving middle-aged adults should be performed to achieve a better understanding of mnemonic development. Investigations involving patients with cognitive impairment due to dementia would also aid in discrimination between these individuals and healthy adults with normal age-associated neurocognitive decline.

Keywords : Cognition; Episodic memory; Aging; Visual perception; Benton Visual Retention Test.

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