Da. Fleischman et al., Word-stem completion priming in healthy aging and Alzheimer's disease: Theeffects of age, cognitive status, and encoding, NEUROPSYCHL, 13(1), 1999, pp. 22-30
There are many conflicting results concerning the effects of age and Alzhei
mer's disease (AD) on word-stem completion priming. To examine potential so
urces of this variability, the authors examined the influences on such prim
ing of age, cognitive status, and encoding in a large sample of young, old,
and AD individuals. At study, words were processed aloud by reading, readi
ng and rating likeability, or generating from definition. Old participants
had less priming than young participants and more priming than AD patients.
For the healthy old participants, priming decreased with advancing age and
with cognitive loss following generation only. For AD patients, priming de
creased as dementia severity increased; patients with the mildest dementia
did not differ from healthy old participants. Thus, age, cognitive status,
and encoding differentially influenced the magnitude of priming in healthy
aging and AD.