Paired Associate Verbal Learning in Dementia of Alzheimer's Type

A two-part test of paired associate verbal learning was administered in a counterbalanced design to 49 patients suffering from dementia of Alzheimer's type (DAT). The two parts of this test of episodic memory contained different associations (very highly and less highly associated). The latter generated significantly more errors with mildly and moderately impaired patients but not with minimally impaired patients. The results confirm previous findings that a deficit in access to, or the structure of, semantic memory, or both, must be invoked to explain episodic memory loss in DAT, and demonstrate that DAT patients are able to use some types of semantic knowledge longer into the course of the disease than others. That is, the nature of the semantic knowledge involved is a significant factor.