Memory abilities during normal aging.
One hundred and five normal subjects from 20 to 89 years old, and with a minimum of six years of formal education were selected. Subjects were divided into seven age ranges, with 15 subjects in each group. The following tests were individually administered: (1) Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) (Wechsler, 1945); (2) Serial Verbal Learning (Ardila, Rosselli & Puente, 1994; Ardila & Ostrosky, 1991); (3) The Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure (ROCF) (Osterrieth, 1944) (copy, immediate, and delayed reproduction); (4) Corsi's blocks (Milner, 1971) (forwards and backwards); and (5) Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test (Wilson, Cockburn, & Baddeley, 1985). This last test may be considered as a functional or ecological memory test. All test scores declined across ages between 4.1% and 76.6%. In all the tests, excepting Digits, standard deviations increased with age. It was observed that the youngest subjects could retain about three-fourths of the information presented, whereas the oldest retained around one-third of this information. About half of the test significantly correlated with the Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test. A factor analysis revealed four different factors accounting for 63.3% of the variance. A single nonverbal memory factor accounted for over 40% of the variance.
Ostrosky-Solis
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National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico D.F., Mexico.
Jaime
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RM
Ardila
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A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012016:Reference Values