Learning Characteristics of the CERAD Word List in an Elderly VA Sample

Abstract

The Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (Morris et al., 1989) neuropsychological battery, including its 10-word list-learning task, remains in clinical and research use. The present study examined learning characteristics of this word list in a clinical series of elderly military veterans referred for neuropsychological evaluation of suspected dementia. Findings are presented establishing specific normative data by age, education, race, and diagnosis on learning outcomes including total new learning, delayed recall, and recognition memory. In addition, variables such as primacy and recency, intrusion and repetition errors, learning slope, and across-trial consistency are reported. There were no unexpected between-group findings, and the current data may be valuable as a reference when patients with similar demographic and health backgrounds are evaluated.

Key words:

• CERAD
• dementia
• verbal learning tests

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Corrigendum

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors acknowledge the assistance of Paul Benson, Ph.D., with gaining UMMS institutional review board approval for this research and Karen M. Jones, M.S., of VA Cooperative Studies in Perry Point, MD, for statistical consultation. The opinions expressed are those of the authors.

There was no outside funding source supporting this research.

Notes

*Tobacco use = estimated lifetime total packs of cigarettes (or equivalent); reference of 1 pack per day for 40 years = 14,600.

**Alcohol use = estimated total alcoholic drinks (1 drink = one 12-oz beer, one 4-oz glass of wine, or 1 oz of liquor); reference = 2 drinks per day for 40 years = 29,200.

MMSE = Mini-Mental State Exam; WRAT-3 Reading = Wide-Range Achievement Test-3 Reading subtest; GDS-R = Geriatric Depression Scale-Revised.

^aEqual variances t-test.

^bUnequal variances (Satterthwaite) t-test.

TOTWORDS = total words acquired during three learning trials; TOTDELR = total words recalled after delay; RECOG = total list items plus distractors correctly identified on the recognition memory trial; SAVSCORE = savings score, or the number of words recalled on delay divided by the number of words learned on the third learning trial; TOTREPS = total number of repetition errors on the learning and recall trials; TOTINTRU = total number of intrusion errors on the learning and recall trials; LEARNSLP = learning slope of stimulus acquisition during three learning trials; PRIMACY = the percentage of words repeated on each learning trial from the first three stimuli presented; MIDDLE = the percentage of words repeated on each learning trial from the middle four stimuli presented; RECENCY = the percentage of words repeated on each learning trial from the last three stimuli presented; ACTRCON = across-trial consistency.

Abbreviations are the same as in Table 2. One-way analysis of variance, between age groups and within diagnosis.

*p = .02.

Abbreviations are the same as in Table 2.

*p = .005; all other comparisons were nonsignificant.

Abbreviations are the same as in Table 2.

No differences on t-test analysis at p = .05 level.

This article not subject to U.S. copyright law.

Ashley J. Greer is now at the Baltimore Division, VA Maryland Health Care System, Baltimore, Maryland.