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Recent studies suggest that cognitive deficits in early Alzheimer's disease (AD) depend on a general impairment of controlled processes, while automatic processes are relatively preserved (Fabrigoule et al., 1998). This hypothesis was tested using the Β«process dissociation procedureΒ» (Jacoby, 1991) that was designed to separate automatic and consciously controlled memory processes. Sixteen AD patients (MMS Ο 22 * 3.09) and 16 controls underwent the procedure. Subjects had to keep words (six letters) in memory. Subsequently, stems consisting of three letters were shown. In an inclusion condition, subjects had to complete each stem to recall a memorized word, or they had to complete stems with the first word that came to mind. Conversely, in an exclusion condition, subjects had to avoid completing stems with memorized words, but had to give another word. Interval between item encoding and stem presentation varied from 0 to 12 intermediate items. Measures of controlled and automatic processing were derived from subject's scores. ANOVA showed that contribution of controlled processes in the memory task was significantly lower in AD patients than in controls. Moreover, the greater the interval between word encoding and stem completion, the greater the deficit in consciously controlled processes for AD patients. On the contrary, automatic processing did not differ between AD patients and controls.
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