The Effects of Auditory Augmentation on Visual Retention for Young and Old Adults

Abstract

Designs from the Benton Visual Retention Test were presented with and without auditory descriptions of their salient features to male high-school students (17-20 years, N = 68) and unemployed, older males (59-77 years, N = 136). Errors for the old group were more numerous than for the young. The auditory cues reduced the number of errors substantially for the old. In previous studies with unrelated verbal material, auditory augmentation enhanced performance for primary memory, but not for secondary memory. In this study with nonverbal material, auditory augmentation improved secondary memory performance for the old with a verbal encoding which provides a rehearsable input and additional retrieval cues.