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Verbal learning in Alzheimer's dementia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 February 2003

Au Alma ,
Chan Agnes S.  and
Chiu Helen
Au Alma*
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Psychology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Hong Kong, China
Chan Agnes S.
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Chiu Helen
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
*
Reprint requests to: Alma Au, Department of Clinical Psychology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, 30 Gascoigne Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China. E-mail: auml@ha.org.hk
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Abstract

Many recent findings in Western countries suggest that episodic recall is the most sensitive discriminator between patients with mild Alzheimer disease (AD) and the normal elderly, while semantic memory tends best to differentiate between moderate and severe AD patients. The present study is the first to examine in detail the episodic memory of Chinese AD patients in Hong Kong with a locally developed list learning test, comparing procedures that do or do not encourage the use of semantic organization. The performance of 28 AD patients was compared to that of 30 normal controls. AD patients did significantly worse in terms of acquisition and retention and also benefited significantly less from external organization cues. In the discriminant function analysis, the rate of forgetting in the random condition and the total retention score in the blocked condition were found to be the best predictors for differentiating between AD patients and controls. On the other hand, in the differentiation between mild and moderate AD, semantic clustering in the blocked condition was found to be the best predictor. Results of the present study were discussed in the light of the previous findings reported in the Western countries and the neuropathological changes of AD patients. (JINS, 2003, 9, 363–375.)

Keywords

Verbal learningEpisodic memorySemantic memoryAlzheimer's disease
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , 25 March 2003 , pp. 363 - 375
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2003

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