Serial position effects in dementia of the Alzheimer type
M. Burkart
Bok Engelsk 1998
| Utgitt | 1998
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| Omfang | Side 130- 136
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| Opplysninger | Background: The aim of the present study was to analyse serialposition effects for immediate and delayed free recall in patientswith dementia of the Alzheimer type and controls. Experiment 1: 44patients with dementia of the Alzheimer-type and 24 non-dementedcontrols were asked for immediate and delayed free recall of 12schematic drawings of common objects presented at the rate of 10s/picture. Steep primacy effects were obtained at all delays incontrols. By contrast, primacy effects were significantly impaired inpatients with dementia at all delays of recall. Small immediate anddelayed recall recency effects were found in both, patients andcontrols. Experiment 2: 19 patients with dementia of the Alzheimertype and 21 controls were asked for immediate and delayed freepicture recall with presentation rates of 10, 5 and 1 s/picture.Again, primacy effects were significantly impaired in dementedpatients versus controls. With shorter presentation times, immediaterecall recency effects were more pronounced than with longerpresentation times, and no delayed recall recency effects were found.Conclusions: Primacy effect is impaired for immediate and delayedrecall in dementia of the Alzheimer type. By contrast, immediaterecall recency effect and possibly also long-term recency effect arepreserved. The loss of the primacy effect contributes to theimpairment of episodic memory in dementia of the Alzheimer type.Therefore further research is warranted into pharmacological andpsychological interventions that might re-establish the primacyeffect. Possibly, the orientation of demented patients might beimproved by psychological techniques that rely on long-term recencyeffect.
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