Exploring visual short‐term memory binding tests as early markers of cognitive decline: A comparative study between healthy aging and mild cognitive impairment

The performance of the young healthy group exceeded that of both older groups. Not surprisingly the MCI group performed least well, particularly in tasks assessing object name-location, colour-location and colour word-location binding. The disproportionate deterioration of these abilities implies that they may serve as early markers of the cognitive decline associated with MCI/dementia, and may form the basis of straightforward cognitive tests that may complement standard cognitive tests.