The mere exposure effect in patients with Alzheimer's disease

The mere exposure effect was examined in patients with mild to moderate Alz heimer's disease (AD). Twenty patients and 20 elderly controls judged the p hysical characteristics of faces. Implicit memory was tested later by prese nting pairs of faces (old and new) and asking participants which faces they liked better. Patients and controls exhibited above chance preference for previously exposed faces. Experiment 2 evaluated whether the preserved impl icit memory of patients was mediated by explicit memory. Patients and contr ols again judged faces but then later chose which faces they had seen befor e. Patients exhibited impaired recognition memory compared to controls. The se findings suggest that a mere exposure effect for unfamiliar faces is pre sent in mild to moderate AD. The results are discussed in terms of perceptu al and conceptual priming and relatively spared occipital lobe functioning in early AD.