Among the goals of this project is to describe adult age differences and age changes in nonverbal memory performance. Nonverbal memory is measured in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BSLA) with the Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT). One of the concerns frequently expressed about cognitive performance data in aging is the potential confounding of age effects with other important variables such as health. Analyses of the BVRT for two education groups for healthier men and women in the BLSA indicated similar and substantial age regressions (slopes) for both education groups for both genders. These participants had no major illness and were taking no medication for serious conditions. Participants in the more educated group had at least a bachelor's degree. Education affected the level of BVRT performance for both men and women, but the slope of errors with age was unaffected by education for either gender. These results indicate that the increase in errors with age was not due to the older participants being less healthy or less educated. Also this year, BVRT was one of many cognitive variables that were correlated with glucose tolerance in women in the BLSA to test the hypothesis that glucose regulation affects such performance. When age, education, and obesity were taken into account, BVRT was not related to blood glucose concentration two hours after ingestion of a glucose load. Contrary to the hypothesis, nonverbal memory as measured by the BVRT seems not to be affected by glucose performance.
