The effect of age on the FCSRT-IR and temporary visual memory binding

ABSTRACT: Background:Cognitive markers of early Alzheimer's disease (AD) should be sensitive and specific to memory impairments that are not associated with healthy cognitive aging. In the present study, we investigated the effect of healthy cognitive aging on two proposed cognitive markers of AD: the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Task with Immediate Recall (FCSRT-IR) and a temporary visual memory binding (TMB) task. METHOD: Free recall and the cost of holding bound information in visual memory were compared between 24 younger and 24 older participants in a mixed, fully counterbalanced experiment. RESULTS: A significant effect of age was observed on free recall in the FCSRT-IR only and not on the cost of binding in the TMB task. CONCLUSIONS: Of these two cognitive markers, the TMB task is more likely to be specific to memory impairments that are independent of age