LONG-LIVED PICTURE PRIMING IN NORMAL ELDERLY PERSONS AND DEMENTED PATIENTS

Normal elderly control participants showed short-term (10-min delay) a nd long-term (12 months delay) priming on the Gollin Figures Test. Nea rly all patients with Alzheimer's disease or vascular dementia showed short-term priming, but the magnitude of their priming was less than t hat of controls. Significant long-term priming was not observed for th e dementia groups. Differences between controls and dementia patients on the short-term priming test may depend upon structural-perceptual p rocesses that are intact in dementia patients and controls and explici t memory functions available only to controls. The same model could ac count for differences between normal elderly and dementia patients on the long-term priming test, but several other explanations are also pl ausible.