title: The recency ratio as an index of cognitive performance and decline in elderly individuals.
abstract: Individuals with Alzheimer's disease have been found to present a typical serial position curve in immediate recall tests, showing poor primacy performance and exaggerated recency recall. However, the recency advantage is usually lost after a delay. On this basis, we examined whether the recency ratio (Rr), calculated by dividing recency performance in an immediate memory task by recency performance in a delayed task, was a useful risk marker of cognitive decline. We tested whether change in Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) performance between baseline and follow-up was predicted by baseline Rr and found this to be the case (N = 245). From these analyses, we conclude that participants with high Rr scores, who show disproportionate recency recall in the immediate test compared to the delayed test, present signs of being at risk for cognitive decline or dysfunction.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Liverpool Hope University , Liverpool , UK.|b School of Natural Sciences and Psychology , Liverpool John Moores University , Liverpool , UK.
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bruno
authors.affiliation: c Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research , Orangeburg , NY , USA.
authors.forename: Chelsea
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Reichert
authors.affiliation: c Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research , Orangeburg , NY , USA.|d Department of Psychiatry , School of Medicine, New York University , New York City , NY , USA.
authors.forename: Nunzio
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pomara
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D011939:Mental Recall; D000073216:Mental Status and Dementia Tests; D008875:Middle Aged
keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Cognitive decline; Mini-Mental State Examination; Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test; Serial position