Semantic, phonological, and hybrid veridical and false memories in healthy older adults and in individuals with dementia of the Alzheimer type.
Five groups of participants (young, healthy old, healthy old-old, very mild dementia of the Alzheimer type [DAT], and mild DAT) studied 12-item lists of words that converged on a critical nonpresented word (cold) semantically (chill, frost, warm, ice), phonologically (code, told, fold, old), or in a hybrid list of both (chill, told, warm, old). The results indicate that (a) veridical recall decreased with age and dementia; (b) recall of the nonpresented items increased with age and remained fairly stable across dementia; and (c) false recall varied by list type, with hybrid lists producing superadditive effects. For hybrid lists, individuals with DAT were 3 times more likely to recall the critical nonpresented word than a studied word. When false memory was considered as a proportion of veridical memory, there was an increase in relative false memory as a function of age and dementia. Results are discussed in terms of age- and dementia-related changes in attention and memory.
Watson
J M
JM
Department of Psychology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130-4899, USA.
Balota
D A
DA
Sergent-Marshall
S D
SD
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010700:Phonetics; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012660:Semantics; D012720:Severity of Illness Index