SOURCES OF PRIMING IN TEXT REREADING - INTACT IMPLICIT MEMORY FOR NEWASSOCIATIONS IN OLDER ADULTS AND IN PATIENTS WITH ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE

The contributions of text meaning, new between-word associations, and single-word repetition to priming in text rereading in younger and old er adults, and in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), were assesse d in Experiment 1. Explicit recognition memory for text was also asses sed. Equivalent single-word and between-word priming was observed for all groups, even though patients with AD showed impaired explicit memo ry for individual words in the text. The contribution of generalized r eading task skill to priming in meaningless text rereading in younger adults was assessed in Experiment 2. Generalized reading task skill wa s also found to contribute to priming. These results reveal 3 mechanis ms of priming: new between-word associations for meaningful and meanin gless text, individual word repetition for meaningless text, and gener al task or skill factors for meaningless text. All priming mechanisms appear to be intact in older adults and in patients with AD.