Elderly subjects when compared to young, mature subjects in a memory-scanning task were shown to have longer response times (RT). A late positive component (LPC) of the average evoked potential did not reflect this difference between groups. However, in both groups, the LPC was seen to occur with longer latency at RT increased. LPC amplitudes also declined with increasing RT. There were greater differences between left- and right-hemisphere LPC amplitude and between LPC recorded along the midline scalp in the younger group than in the older subjects.