Age-Related Change in Visual, Spatial, and Verbal Memory

Objectives: To explore the relationship between age and performance on verbal, visual and spatial memory tasks and to examine whether verbal, visual and spatial memory can be measured as separate memory representations.Methods: Sixty-two participants aged between 18 and 57 years completed a listening span task, a dot memory task, and an irregular polygon with articulatory suppression task.Results: Verbal and spatial memory declined with increased age. The relationship between age and visual memory, although negative, was not significant. Age correlated with verbal memory to a greater degree than with visual or spatial memory. The correlations between each of the memory tasks were not significant, suggesting that each task was tapping a distinct type of memory.Conclusions: Verbal, visual and spatial memory appears to be differentially affected by age and should be examined as separate representations.