PRESERVATION OF TEMPORAL SKILLS IN ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE

Previous researchers have assumed that temporal skills are lost early in Alzheimer's disease. This belief may originate from examining only one type of temporal skill-logical time. In this study three categorie s of time, that draw on different types of processes, were selected. I t was hypothesized that, although those with Possible Alzheimer's dise ase would have difficulty with the logical time items, they would show relatively preserved performance on the two other types of time skill s that rely on the automatic processes of socialized and intuitive tim e. Participants included 11 individuals who met the criteria for Possi ble Alzheimer's disease and a comparison group of 19 psychiatric patie nts who had Mini Mental State Examination scores in a normal range. As expected, those with Possible Alzheimer's disease performed as well a s the comparison group on the intuitive and socialized time skills. Un expectedly, it was found that one type of logical time skill was also preserved in the Possible Alzheimer's disease group.