PROSPECTIVE MEMORY IMPAIRMENT AS AN EARLY INDICATOR OF DEMENTIA

Theoretical accounts of the cognitive processes involved in prospectiv e memory imply that performance on such tasks will be more vulnerable than retrospective memory tests to the early stages of dementia. This hypothesis is examined in elderly subjects from a general population s ample which includes demented subjects. We report the findings on thre e tests of prospective memory from the Rivermead Behavioural Memory Te st (Wilson et al., 1985) and compare it with measures of retrospective memory for recently acquired information. In contrast to retrospectiv e memory where subjects with minimal dementia perform at a level inter mediate between normals and more demented subjects, the subjects with minimal dementia perform as poorly as more demented subjects on the pr ospective memory tests. These findings provide evidence that prospecti ve memory tasks are particularly sensitive to the early stages of deme ntia. Covariance analysis and the pattern of intercorrelations found b etween prospective and retrospective memory lead to alternative hypoth eses about the cognitive processes involved in prospective memory and the way in which they break down.