title: Serial position effect in a free recall task: differences between probable dementia of Alzheimer type (PDAT), vascular (VaD) and mixed etiology dementia (MED).
abstract: Here we report an investigation on the serial position effect (SPE) in elderly patients with early dementia due to different etiologies. The Rey's 15 words test has been used to evaluate whether different types of dementia show different patterns of immediate and delayed recall and of learning process. Ninety-four patients were recruited from the Geriatric Clinic of Padua. We evaluated the primacy effect (PE), the recency effect (RE) and the learning process within the sample. Our results indicate that different etiologies have different patterns of anterograde memory impairment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Surgical Sciences, Geriatric Clinic, University of Padova, Padova (PD), Italy. graziella.orru@unipd.it
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Orru
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sampietro
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Catanzaro
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Girardi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Najjar
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Giantin
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sergi
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Manzato
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Enzi
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Inelmen
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Coin
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D015140:Dementia, Vascular / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012691:Serial Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index