The effects of color and preretinal aging on embedded figures test performance: a failure to replicate

This study examined the hypothesis that preretinal aging may adversely affect performance in older adults. The relationship between preretinal aging and a perceptual variable (i.e., color) was also explored. Under standard testing procedures, the (a) normal, (b) light-attenuated, and (c) simulated aged performance of 90 young women was compared to the performance of 30 elderly women, using two forms (colored or noncolored) of the Embedded Figures Test (EFT). Results revealed that young women performed significantly better than elderly women on all measures, suggesting that neither the simulation of preretinal aging nor color was a significant factor in EFT performance. Inasmuch as the present study failed to replicate Ball and Pollack (1989), the critical age-related factors in cognitive/perceptual performance have yet to be identified.