The performance of healthy older adults on the continuous visual memory test and the visual-motor integration test: Preliminary findings

The performance of 53 healthy older adults (age 60-92) was examined on the Continuous Visual Memory Test (CVMT) and the Visual Motor Integration Test (VMI). Subjects were divided into the following 3 groups: age 60-69, age 70-79, and age 80-92. Findings for the 60-69 and 80-92 age groups are considered tentative due to small sample size (n = 14 and 8 respectively). Preliminary data for the three age groups on the CVMT and the VMI are presented. On the CVMT, an unsatisfactorily large percentage of subjects were classified as impaired using the cutoffs provided in the CVMT manual, particularly on the delayed recognition measure and for all scores in the age 80-92 group. These preliminary findings suggest that the CVMT may not be an appropriate measure of nonverbal memory for older adults. The subjects' performance on the VMI suggests that this test is an adequate measure of graphomotor constructional ability in older adults and appears to be sensitive to aging effects. The VMI shows promise as an objective measure of graphomotor constructional ability in healthy older adults, and potentially, for individuals with neurological disease.