title: Cognitive factors affecting free recall, cued recall, and recognition tasks in Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Our aim was to identify cognitive factors affecting free recall, cued recall, and recognition tasks in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD).
  
  
  METHODS
  We recruited 349 consecutive AD patients who attended a memory clinic.
  
  
  METHODS
  Each patient was assessed using the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS) and the extended 3-word recall test. In this task, each patient was asked to freely recall 3 previously presented words. If patients could not recall 1 or more of the target words, the examiner cued their recall by providing the category of the target word and then provided a forced-choice recognition of the target word with 2 distracters. The patients were divided into groups according to the results of the free recall, cued recall, and recognition tasks. Multivariate logistic regression analysis for repeated measures was carried out to evaluate the net effects of cognitive factors on the free recall, cued recall, and recognition tasks after controlling for the effects of age and recent memory deficit.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Performance on the ADAS Orientation task was found to be related to performance on the free and cued recall tasks, performance on the ADAS Following Commands task was found to be related to performance on the cued recall task, and performance on the ADAS Ideational Praxis task was found to be related to performance on the free recall, cued recall, and recognition tasks.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The extended 3-word recall test reflects deficits in a wider range of memory and other cognitive processes, including memory retention after interference, divided attention, and executive functions, compared with word-list recall tasks. The characteristics of the extended 3-word recall test may be advantageous for evaluating patients' memory impairments in daily living.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Welfare, Graduate School of Health and Welfare, Niigata University of Health and Welfare, Niigata, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamagishi
authors.forename: Takuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Toru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Imamura