Seventy-four men and women (age range, 44-77 years) were tested for short-term auditory and visual memory as part of a larger series of memory and cognitive function tests. All test scores for visual memory, including facial photograph recognition when a sequence requirement was adhered to, showed a significant decline (p smaller than .05) in a comparison of subjects aged 44-54 and subjects aged 55-64. This decline was not observed with the two tests of auditory memory. Thus the data indicate that short-term visual memory may be more susceptible to aging than is auditory memory.

Two visual criteria — the Spiral Aftereffect Test (SAET) and the Rapid Picture Projection Test (RPPT) — were used for evaluation of memory and mental impairment in 52 aging subjects. The scores were compared with those obtained on the Wechsler Memory Scale Associate Learning Subtest (WMSALS) and the Orientation Test (OT) (Pfeiffer). A multiple regression analysis of several test variables indicated that the RPPT was the best indicator of verbal memory and that it was highly correlated with OT findings. When the RPPT and SAET were matched with the WMSALS, scores on both were significantly correlated with those on WMSALS verbal memory. SAET performance by the elderly subjects was lower than that by the younger controls in other studies, and often matched that by patients with organic impairment. The chief handicaps identified with both tests were: inefficient eye movements, difficulties in conceptualizing, and inability to transform the visual information to a communicable verbal form. Suggestions are made for the testing of eye movements and eye fixations with the newest oculographic techniques, for the manipulation of some of the testing conditions with the SAET and RPPT, for a procedural variation with memory training, and for a clinical application of the RPPT.