title: Prose recall in dementia. A comparison of delay intervals.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore one methodological variation, delay length, that may contribute to contradictory findings in the literature regarding the use of delayed recall in the detection of early-stage dementia of the Alzheimer type.
  
  
  METHODS
  Comparison of participants with dementia and without dementia on a prose recall task at both 10- and 30-minute delay intervals.
  
  
  METHODS
  Washington University Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, St Louis, Mo.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants with very mild dementia of the Alzheimer type (n = 136) and uncompromised elderly individuals (n = 197).
  
  
  METHODS
  Results of the Logical Memory subtest from the Wechsler Memory Scale with immediate recall and 10- and 30-minute delayed recall.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants with dementia recalled significantly less material than elderly controls at both immediate and delayed recall (P < .001). Multiple regression analyses revealed that dementia classification failed to account for additional variance in the 30-minute delayed score beyond that which could be accounted for by the immediate score. A small but significant proportion of variance was accounted for in the 10-minute delayed score beyond that which could be accounted for by the immediate recall score.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Delayed recall of a prose passage does not appear to enhance the differentiation of very mild dementia of the Alzheimer type from normal aging in a meaningful way, whether the recall delay is 10 or 30 minutes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Washington University, St Louis, Mo., USA.
authors.forename: L L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Chapman
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: White
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Storandt
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D014888:Wechsler Scales