title: Visual memory in Alzheimer patients: effects of practice, retention interval and severity of cognitive decline.
abstract: The study was aimed at estimating the effect size of practice, retention interval and dementia severity on free recall performance in Alzheimer patients. Patients met DSM-III-R criteria for dementia of Alzheimer type. Different picture sets were presented on 4 days. The forgetting curves on different days were compared using ANOVA for repeated measurements. Practice had a minor, but significant negative effect on recall performance explaining 1% of the variance in recall performance. The retention interval varied between zero and 24 h explaining 23% of the total variance. Dementia severity explained 52% of the variance. For the development of memory improvement strategies in Alzheimer patients, the repeated measurement design using intraindividual comparisons seems more powerful than group comparisons.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Heun
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bierbrauer
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Benkert
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D013997:Time Factors; D014796:Visual Perception