Department of Psychology, Liverpool Hope University, Hope Park, Liverpool, L16 9JD, UK.
Arch Clin Neuropsychol. 2013 Mar;28(2):95-103. doi: 10.1093/arclin/acs116. Epub 2013 Jan 7.
One of the cognitive changes associated with Alzheimer's disease is a diminution of the primacy effect, i.e., the tendency toward better recall of items studied early on a list compared with the rest. We examined whether learning and recall of primacy words predicted subsequent cognitive decline in 204 elderly subjects who were non-demented and cognitively intact when first examined. Our results show that poorer primacy performance in the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test delayed recall trials, but not in immediate recall trials, is an effective predictor of subsequent decline in general cognitive function. This pattern of performance can be interpreted as evidence that failure to consolidate primacy items is a marker of cognitive decline.
与阿尔茨海默病相关的认知变化之一是首因效应的减弱，即与列表上其他项目相比，人们更倾向于回忆起早期学习过的项目。我们研究了在首次检查时无痴呆且认知完整的 204 名老年受试者中，首因词的学习和回忆是否可以预测随后的认知下降。我们的研究结果表明，在 Rey 听觉言语学习测试中较差的首因表现延迟了延迟回忆试验，但即时回忆试验不受影响，这是随后一般认知功能下降的有效预测指标。这种表现模式可以解释为未能巩固首因项目是认知下降的标志。
