Performance of four age groups of normal elderly on the Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test

This study explored effect of age on encoding, retention, and retrieval components of memory functioning in a sample of 156 healthy, elderly subjects between the ages of 57 and 85, partitioned into four age groups. Memory assessment was based on subjects' performance on the RAVLT, which consisted of five free-recall trials, recall after interference, and recognition trial. Significant group differences in recall were found on all five learning trials, whereas rates of learning, forgetting, and recognition did not differ for four age groups. In addition, primacy/recency effect was equally strong for all groups. Results suggest faulty retrieval mechanisms, whereas encoding and retention processes did not prove to be affected by aging.