INFLUENCES OF COGNITIVE SUPPORT ON EPISODIC REMEMBERING - TRACING THEPROCESS OF LOSS FROM NORMAL AGING TO ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE

Normal older adults, incident Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, and p revalent AD patients were examined across a 3-year interval in episodi c memory tasks that varied in terms of study time, organizability, and retrieval cues. There were marked overall preclinical deficits among the incident AD patients, although these patients were as effective as the normal older adults in utilizing more study time, organizability, and retrieval cues to improve memory at baseline. When these patients were diagnosed with AD at follow-up, they showed negligible gains fro m increased study time and organizability when memory was assessed wit h free recall, although they profited from the provision of retrieval cues. This pattern of results was also seen in the prevalent AD patien ts at both times of measurement. These results indicate that a general impairment of episodic memory may precede reductions in cognitive res erve capacity in the early development of AD.