Semantic, phonological, and hybrid veridical and false memories in healthyolder adults and in individuals with dementia of the Alzheimer type

Five groups, of participants (young, healthy old, healthy old-old, very mil d dementia of the Alzheimer type [DAT], and mild DAT) studied 12-item lists of words that converged on a critical nonpresented word (cold) semanticall y (chill, frost warm, ice), phonologically (code, told, foIJ old), or in a hybrid list of both (chill, told, wann, old). The results indicate that (a) veridical recall decreased with age and dementia; (b) recall of the nonpre sented items increased with age and remained fairly stable across dementia; and (c) false recall varied by list type, with hybrid lists producing supe radditive effects. For hybrid lists, individuals with DAT were 3 times more likely to recall the critical nonpresented word than a studied word. When false memory was considered as a proportion of veridical memory, there was an increase in relative false memory as a function of age and dementia. Res ults are discussed in terms of age- and dementia-related changes in attenti on and memory.