Previous studies have shown that, as age advances, there is a progressive decrease in the ability to respond sequentially to simultaneous stimuli. It has been suggested that this impairment with age is due to a decline in the efficiency of some short‐term storage process. In those studies, however, the relation of this process to performance on other learning tasks had not been traced in normal subjects, nor have the possible effects of changes in sensory acuity, perception or attention been adequately controlled.This paper describes the results obtained from 120 normal subjects aged from 11 to 70 yr in their reproduction of dichotic digits (a) when the order of recall is left to the free choice of the subject, (b) when the order of recall has been specified before, and (c) after these digits have been delivered. The correlation of performance on this task with performance on serial learning is also described.The results obtained confirm the view that it is a change in some short‐term storage process rather than in any perceptual function which principally affects performance in this kind of experimental situation. Evidence was also obtained that short‐term storage is an important, but not a unique component, of longer term learning.