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Updated: Dec 12, 2025

Using a Real-Time Locating System to Measure Walking Activity Associated with Wandering Behaviors Among Institutionalized Older Adults
Published on: February 8, 2019
The Location Learning Test-Revised is associated with informant-reported everyday functioning in a sample of
Jennifer L Thompson1, Romola S Bucks2, Michael Weinborn2
1Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA.
Objective:
Object location learning and memory may be important for older adults to successfully complete some everyday activities.
Method:
This cross-sectional, correlational study investigated the ecological relevance of the Location Learning Test-Revised (LLT-R) in 195 community-dwelling, older adults in Western Australia. The LLT-R assesses object location learning and memory for everyday objects over five learning trials and after a 30-min delay. Knowledgeable informants provided structured ratings of participants' activities of daily living and memory symptoms.
Results:
A greater number of errors on LLT-R total learning trials were associated with mild problems in activities of daily living (particularly in travel and household domains), but not with memory symptoms. The LLT-R's association with activities of daily living was accompanied by a small-to-medium effect size and was not better explained by demographics, global cognitive functioning, mood, or chronic medical conditions.
Conclusions:
Findings provide some support for the ecological relevance of the LLT-R among older community-dwelling adults and suggest that object location learning may play a role in some everyday functioning problems that accompany typical aging.

