1

The influence of cardiovascular signs (CVS) on cognitive performance was examined in 227 older adults not suf-fering from dementia between 75 and 96 years of age who were sampled from the community. Participants re-ceived a comprehensive physical examination that included specific evaluation of current CVS, including dyspnea, cardiac murmur, and edema in lower limbs. They were administered tests of digit span, episodic recall and recognition, verbal fluency, and visuospatial skill. CVS were found to predict performance on tests of epi-sodic memory and visuospatial skill, after the effects of age, education, gender, relevant drug use, and mood symptoms were controlled for. Although CVS accounted for relatively little general performance variation, the findings are relevant to the understanding of normal variation in late-life cognitive performance. Finally, CVS in-creased with age and accounted for a sizable proportion of the age-related cognitive variation. ARDIOVASCULAR disease (CVD) is common in old age. Evidence suggests that prevalence rates for car-diac failure doubles every decade across the adult life span (Kannel & Belanger, 1991). Prevalence rates for chronic cardiac failure have been found to increase from aroun