The authors examined adult age differences in the proficiency of visua
lly scan,ling across perceived and imaged displays. Participants were
asked to indicate whether an arrow in the central region of a square g
rid ring pointed to a target square. The distance between arrow and ta
rget was varied, and all participants showed the expected increase in
response times and error rates as scanning distance increased. The arr
ow and grid display either remained visible until the participant resp
onded (perceptual condition) or disappeared after 50 ms (imagery condi
tion). In both conditions, older participants required more time to sc
an and made more errors as distance increased than did younger partici
pants. These findings conflict with previous studies showing that perc
eptual and imagery scanning are preserved with aging. Although methodo
logical factors may have contributed to these differences, further res
earch is needed to elucidate effects of aging on visual scanning.