Table 1.

Episodic memory performance in the three groups of subjects.

	Young (n = 14)•	Old (n = 14)	AD (n = 14)
Grober & Buschke task
Last immediate cued recall (max 15, evening)	15 ± 0	15 ± 0	12 ± 2.5◦◦
Delayed cued recall (max 15, morning)	15 ± 0	14.8 ± 0.6	10.2 ± 3.8◦◦◦
Forgetting rate (%)	0 ± 0	−1.6 ± 4.45	20.2 ± 17.6◦◦◦
Morning – Evening performance	0 ± 0	−0.2 ± 0.6	−2.2 ± 1.8◦◦◦
Correct recognitions (max 15)	15 ± 0	14.8 ± 0.4	12.8 ± 2.3◦◦
False recognitions	0.08 ± 0.3	0.1 ± 0.4	6.5 ± 4.9◦◦◦
Story recall task
Immediate free recall (max 12, evening)	10 ± 1.5	8.7 ± 1.9t	2.9 ± 1.2◦◦◦
Delayed free recall (max 12, morning)	8.6 ± 1.9	7.1 ± 1.7*	0.6 ± 1.1◦◦◦
Forgetting rate (%)	14.4 ± 14.1	17.2 ± 15.7	82.1 ± 30.7◦◦◦
Morning – Evening performance	−1.4 ± 1.2	−1.6 ± 1.4	−2.3 ± 1.1

Displayed are means ± SD and results from statistical groups comparisons (unpaired Student t tests). Old vs Young comparison:

^*<.05;

^tp<.07;

AD vs Old comparison:

^◦◦p<.01;

^◦◦◦p<.001.

Last immediate cued recall of the Grober and Buschke’s task as well as immediate free recall of the Story task, were proposed in the evening, before sleep. “Morning – Evening” performance corresponds to the difference of scores on the delayed minus immediate recall scores. Forgetting rate was calculated as follows: ((Immediate recall − delayed recall)/immediate recall) × 100.

^•One young subject has been excluded from the analyses due to abnormal proportion of false recognitions (> 2.5 SD of the mean performance of the Young group).