Comparison of the serial position effect in very mild Alzheimerʼs disease, mild Alzheimerʼs disease, and amnesia associated with electroconvulsive therapy
BAYLEY, PETER J.; SALMON, DAVID P.; BONDI, MARK W.; BUI, BARBARA K.; OLICHNEY, JOHN; DELIS, DEAN C.; THOMAS, RONALD G.; THAL, LEON J.; BAYLEY PETER J.; University of California; University of California; University of California, San Diego; SALMON DAVID P.; University of California; University of California; BONDI MARK W.; University of California; VA San Diego Healthcare System; BUI BARBARA K.; University of California; OLICHNEY JOHN; University of California; University of California; VA San Diego Healthcare System; DELIS DEAN C.; University of California; VA San Diego Healthcare System; THOMAS RONALD G.; University of California; University of California; THAL LEON J.; University of California; University of California; VA San Diego Healthcare System
Журнал:
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society
Дата:
2000
Аннотация:
Individuals given a series of words to memorize normally show better immediate recall for items from the beginning and end of the list than for midlist items. This phenomenon, known as the serial position effect, is thought to reflect the concurrent contributions of secondary and primary memory, respectively, to recall performance. The present study compared the serial position effects produced on Trial 1 of the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) in mildly demented (N = 25; M MMSE = 20.0) and very mildly demented (N = 25; M MMSE = 25.5) patients with Alzheimerʼs disease (AD), and age- and education-matched normal control (NC) participants (N = 50). In addition, the serial position effects of the very mildly demented AD patients were compared to those of patients with a transient, circumscribed amnesia arising from a prescribed series of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) treatments for the relief of depressive illness (N = 11). While the NC group exhibited the typical serial position effect, AD patients recalled significantly fewer words than NC participants overall, and exhibited a significantly reduced primacy effect (i.e., recall of the first 2 list items) with a normal recency effect (i.e., recall of the last 2 list items). Patients with circumscribed amnesia due to ECT were as impaired as the very mildly demented AD patients on most standard CVLT measures of learning and memory, but exhibited primacy and recency effects, which were within normal limits. These results suggest that a reduction in the primacy effect, but not the recency effect, is an early and ubiquitous feature of the memory impairment of AD. It is not, however, a necessary feature of all causes of memory impairment. (JINS, 2000, 6, 290–298.)
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