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American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias logoLink to American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias
. 2009 Apr-May;24(2):155–162. doi: 10.1177/1533317508330561

Free Recall and Learning of Emotional Word Lists in Very Elderly People With and Without Dementia

Ruth E Nieuwenhuis-Mark 1, Kim Schalk 2, Natalie de Graaf 3
PMCID: PMC10846210  PMID: 19171949

Abstract

An emotional memory advantage has been found across the life span where recall is better for emotional (as opposed to neutral) stimuli. Our goal was to design emotionally valent word lists for easy use by practitioners and to test whether demented and healthy elderly participants showed an emotional memory advantage with these lists. Three new word lists (a positive, a negative, and a neutral list) were constructed. Thirty-eight controls, 37 with mild cognitive impairment and 20 Alzheimer's dementia participants' free recall was tested. Unsurprisingly, controls had better recall overall. Emotionally valent words were recalled better in comparison to neutral words in all 3 groups. No recall advantage for positive versus negative words emerged. Learning differed among the groups with the Alzheimer's dementia participants showing flatter learning curves. The results tentatively suggest that emotional memory may stay intact longer but that learning of such lists becomes more difficult as dementia progresses.

Keywords: dementia, recall, learning, emotional word lists

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Contributor Information

Ruth E. Nieuwenhuis-Mark, Department of Medical Psychology and Neuropsychology, University of Tilburg, Tilburg, Netherlands, R.E.Mark@uvt.nl .

Kim Schalk, Department of Medical Psychology and Neuropsychology, University of Tilburg, Tilburg, Netherlands.

Natalie de Graaf, Department of Medical Psychology and Neuropsychology, University of Tilburg, Tilburg, Netherlands.

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