University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA.
J Alzheimers Dis. 2024;101(4):1261-1266. doi: 10.3233/JAD-240294.
When Ronald Reagan revealed his Alzheimer's diagnosis in 1994, it rekindled a lingering question: did dementia affect Reagan during his eight years as president? Amid countless countervailing anecdotes, Berisha et al. (2015) stepped in with an inventive systematic test. Scouring Ronald Reagan's 46 formal press conferences for specific linguistic markers, the study discovered "significant differences in variables known to be associated with the onset of dementia" (962).
Here I test whether Reagan's unique word usage rate decline is spurious, a function of reporters' increasing penchant for asking "follow-up" questions.
Focusing on the President's specific responses to distinct questions, I reanalyze Reagan's unique word usage rate while holding constant the number and type of reporter questions.
I find Reagan's unique word usage rate held form throughout his eight years in the White House.
I conclude by considering the implications for Reagan's legacy and Alzheimer's research.
1994 年，罗纳德·里根（Ronald Reagan）公布了自己的阿尔茨海默病诊断结果，这重新引发了一个挥之不去的问题：在担任总统的八年期间，里根是否患有痴呆症？在无数相互矛盾的传闻中，贝里沙等人（2015 年）进行了一项创新的系统测试。该研究通过仔细研究罗纳德·里根（Ronald Reagan）的 46 次正式新闻发布会，寻找特定的语言标记，发现“与痴呆症发作相关的变量存在显著差异”（962）。
在这里，我测试里根独特的单词使用频率下降是否是虚假的，是否是记者越来越倾向于提问“后续问题”的结果。
我专注于总统对不同问题的具体回答，在保持记者提问数量和类型不变的情况下，重新分析里根独特的单词使用频率。
我发现里根在白宫的八年任期内，独特的单词使用频率保持不变。
我通过考虑对里根的遗产和阿尔茨海默病研究的影响来得出结论。
