Age and alcoholism: independent memory decrements

Similarities and differences in performances on 18 verbal and nonverbal memory tasks were studied in young and old alcoholics and in young and old controls as test of hypotheses postulating that cognitive decrements from alcoholism either mimic "premature aging," are "age sensitive," or are "independent" from those of normal aging. Young and old alcoholics were matched in length and rate of heavy drinking and were also equated with their controls in age, education, and vocabulary. The multivariate memory and decision data, when converted to independent factor scores, separated alcoholic from control groups on a factor reflecting memory for auditorily presented information. This was independent from factor scores affected mainly by age, such as memory for visuospatial items or decision bias. Age and alcoholism produced overlapping but distinctly different profiles of memory impairments. Decrements in young alcoholics did not resemble those of aging nor did old alcoholics surpass old controls in any but one factor, so that neither the premature aging nor the age sensitivity hypothesis were invariably supported.