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The serial position effect in mild and moderately severe vascular dementia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2002

ROBERT H. PAUL
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown Medical School, Providence, Rhode Island
RONALD A. COHEN
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown Medical School, Providence, Rhode Island
DAVID J. MOSER
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa
TRICIA M. ZAWACKI
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown Medical School, Providence, Rhode Island
NORMAN GORDON
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Brown Medical School, Providence, Rhode Island

Abstract

The present study examined the serial position effect in 2 subgroups of individuals with vascular dementia (VaD). Nineteen individuals with mild VaD and 17 individuals with moderate VaD were administered the California Verbal Learning Test. Both groups were impaired on a general memory measure, and the moderately impaired group demonstrated significantly poorer recall than the mildly impaired group on the first learning trial and on total learning across trials. In addition, individuals with mild dementia demonstrated an intact primacy and recency effect, whereas individuals with moderate dementia demonstrated neither primacy nor recency effects. The latter findings are consistent with studies examining the serial position effect in other dementia populations, and suggests that the absence of primacy and recency effects in more advanced dementia may occur regardless of dementia type. (JINS, 2002, 8, 584–587.)

Type
BRIEF COMMUNICATION
Copyright
© 2002 The International Neuropsychological Society

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