The performance of depressed and non-depressed subjects in three age groups was compared on speed and power cognitive and psychomotor tests. It was found that even when the groups were equated on the level of education, depressed and older subjects tended to perform more poorly than controls on speed tests. The performance on the power tests was affected to a lesser extent. Eyelid conditioning carried out on the subjects indicated that there were no differences amongst the groups in conditionability, nor was the latter related to the speed and power measures. The ‘alpha’ factor analyses confirmed the hypothesis that power and speed tests load on separate factors. The general implications of this study are discussed.
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