Just lying there, remembering: improving recall of prose in amnesic patients with mild cognitive impairment by minimising interference.
The hallmark of amnesia is poor explicit long-term memory along with normal short-term memory. It is often stated that information encountered by amnesic patients is forgotten within 1 minute of presentation. However, previous work has not distinguished between forgetting as a function of time versus the interfering material occupying that time. We show that there is a marked benefit of reduced interference in amnesic patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a condition that is characterised by anterograde amnesia in the absence of other neuropsychological deficits and carries an increased risk for Alzheimer's disease. The result suggests that long-term memory is encoded in these patients to a greater extent than had been realised but that their memory is highly vulnerable to interference.
Della Sala
Sergio
S
Department of Psychology, King's College, University of Aberdeen, AB24 2UB Aberdeen, UK. sergio@abdn.ac.uk
Cowan
Nelson
N
Beschin
Nicoletta
N
Perini
Michele
M
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D020324:Amnesia, Anterograde / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011594:Psychometrics; D013997:Time Factors