Learning profiles in healthy aging, late -life depression and Alzheimer's disease: The serial position effect in free recall.
Item
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Title
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Learning profiles in healthy aging, late -life depression and Alzheimer's disease: The serial position effect in free recall.
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Identifier
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AAI3159227
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identifier
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3159227
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Creator
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Knutelska, Malgorzata E.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Nancy S. Foldi
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Date
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2005
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Clinical | Psychology, Cognitive | Gerontology
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Abstract
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Differentiating between healthy older adults (HC), patients with late-life depression (LLD) and early Alzheimer's disease (AD) poses a significant clinical challenge. Learning characteristics of LLD have been previously demonstrated using Regional serial position scores using the California Verbal Learning Test. The current study explores whether the differential patterns of learning semantically unrelated words on the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test distinguishes these three groups. Measures of serial position reliably differentiated among the groups. As previously shown, the LLD group differed from the HC group in lower recall of items from the middle region. The AD group showed typical reliance on the recency region and, although this group was able to demonstrate learning within this region with rehearsal, over time they showed typical decay. Contribution of working memory, processing speed and executive functions to pattern of learning are discussed.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
