IMPROVEMENT OF PICTURE RECALL BY REPETITION IN PATIENTS WITH DEMENTIA OF ALZHEIMER TYPE

✍ Scribed by REINHARD HEUN; MARTIN BURKART; OTTO BENKERT

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 132 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1166(199701)12:1<85::aid-gps470>3.0.co;2-u

✦ Synopsis

The evidence for positive eects of repetition on recall performance in patients with dementia of Alzheimer type is equivocal. This may be due to the dierence repetition conditions used. The aim of this study was therefore to evaluate the eects of dierent repetition modes on the improvement of recall performance in demented subjects. Twenty-four patients with Alzheimer type dementia and 24 control subjects with remitted depression were included in the study. Pictures were presented repeatedly using dierent presentation modes at a constant total presentation time. Free recall was tested repeatedly after dierent periods of delay (0±8 hours). Immediate and delayed list repetition signi®cantly improved recall performance in both groups. Within-list repetition did not improve total recall in demented subjects. The repeated measurement design sensitively detected minor changes in recall performance. These were not observed using other measures of recall and recognition (hits, false alarms, indices of signal discrimination).