Nonverbal recall and omission errors in normal aging

Abstract

Omission errors made by 186 older adults were compared to those of 96 younger adults on a nonverbal delayed recall task, the Wechsler Memory Scale - Revised Visual Reproduction II subtest (WMS - R VR 2, Wechsler, 1987). Older subjects failed to reproduce both figures A and B significantly more often than younger subjects, with the greatest between--group variance occurring on figure A. The results suggest that age-related declines in nonverbal memory and delayed recall may have contributed to this pattern of performance. Furthermore, inattention and retroactive interference effects may have also been particularly relevant. Suggestions are made for subsequent research to rule out order effects by reordering the presentation of VR2 subtest stimuli and employing other measures of visual memory, visuoconstructive performance, and interference. Further understanding of older adults' performance on the WMS - R Visual Reproduction subtest would prove valuable, since it is used extensively in a variety of research and clinical settings.