LONG-TERM CUED-RECALL OF TASKS IN SENILE DEMENTIA

Participants with senile dementia of the Alzheimer's type, vascular de mentia, or both, associated a task with a cue. On reinstatement of the cue 1 day later, a substantial portion of the sample recalled the tas k. The teaching method, both with and without participant performance of the task (PPT), was spaced retrieval with supplementary or fading c ues provided as required. Findings were that (a) PPT encoding and retr ieval encoding, separately, assisted later recall; (b) retrieval combi ned with PPT encoding increased the probability of task performance at final recall; (c) repetition in the absence of retrieval or PPT was l ess effective; and (d) there was no forgetting between 1 hr and 1 day. Theoretical and clinical aspects of these findings are discussed.