VISUAL MEMORY IN ALZHEIMER EFFECTS OF PRACTICE, RETENTION INTERVAL AND SEVERITY OF COGNITIVE DECLINE

The study was aimed at estimating the effect size of practice, retenti on interval and dementia severity on free recall performance in Alzhei mer patients. Patients met DSM-III-R criteria for dementia of Alzheime r type. Different picture sets were presented on 4 days. The forgettin g curves on different days were compared using ANOVA for repeated meas urements. Practice had a minor, but significant negative effect on rec all performance explaining 1% of the variance in recall performance. T he retention interval varied between zero and 24 h explaining 23% of t he total variance. Dementia severity explained 52% of the variance. Fo r the development of memory improvement strategies in Alzheimer patien ts, the repeated measurement design using intraindividual comparisons seems more powerful than group comparisons.