Balance reactions that involve rapidly stepping or reaching to grasp a handrail or other objects for support play a crucial role in preventing us from falling when we lose our balance. However, to recover balance successfully, the central nervous system has to be able to control the stepping or grasping movement to deal with "environmental constraints" (i.e. objects and architectural features that can obstruct stepping or serve as handholds to grasp), and hence must somehow monitor the location of potential constraints as we move about in our daily lives. The need to monitor these environmental features suggests a critical role for visual attention, gaze control, and spatial memory, all of which are known to decline with aging. Although no studies have examined the effects on balance control, it is known that such deficits can impair other motor behaviors such as driving and can be successfully countered using a computer-based "visual training" intervention designed to improve the ability to rapidly extract information from the peripheral visual field (the so-called "Useful Field of View", or UFOV).