TY - JOUR
T1 - Normal aging and forgetting rates on the wechsler memory scale-revised
AU - Munro Cullum, C.
AU - Butters, Nelson
AU - Tröster, Alexander I.
AU - Salmon, David P.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by funds from NIA Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant AG-05420 to the first author, NIA Grants AG-05131 and AG-08204 to the University of California, and by the Medical Research Service of the Veterans Administration. The authors thank Janet Conant, Patricia Cairns and Diane Jacobs for testing some of the subjects.
PY - 1990
Y1 - 1990
N2 - The deleterious effects of aging on various cognitive abilities are widely recognized, yet little is known regarding what constitutes "normal" memory test performance in individuals over the age of 74. In this study, forgetting rates for verbal and nonverbal material from the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R) were examined in groups of older healthy individuals, age 50-70 and 75-95. Despite equivalent scores on measures of global cognitive status and attention/ concentration, the older group demonstrated significantly more rapid forgetting rates on the Visual Reproduction, Verbal Paired Associates, and Visual Paired Associates subtests of the WMS-R. Although patients with Alzheimer's disease also evidence very rapid forgetting on some subtests, the severity and pattern of losses appears useful in differentiating "abnormal" forgetting from that exhibited by normal elderly subjects. Preliminary normative data for normal elderly subjects on the WMS-R are presented, and the need for appropriate norms for elderly individuals is discussed.
AB - The deleterious effects of aging on various cognitive abilities are widely recognized, yet little is known regarding what constitutes "normal" memory test performance in individuals over the age of 74. In this study, forgetting rates for verbal and nonverbal material from the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R) were examined in groups of older healthy individuals, age 50-70 and 75-95. Despite equivalent scores on measures of global cognitive status and attention/ concentration, the older group demonstrated significantly more rapid forgetting rates on the Visual Reproduction, Verbal Paired Associates, and Visual Paired Associates subtests of the WMS-R. Although patients with Alzheimer's disease also evidence very rapid forgetting on some subtests, the severity and pattern of losses appears useful in differentiating "abnormal" forgetting from that exhibited by normal elderly subjects. Preliminary normative data for normal elderly subjects on the WMS-R are presented, and the need for appropriate norms for elderly individuals is discussed.
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U2 - 10.1016/0887-6177(90)90004-9
DO - 10.1016/0887-6177(90)90004-9
M3 - Article
C2 - 14589541
AN - SCOPUS:0025302475
SN - 0887-6177
VL - 5
SP - 23
EP - 30
JO - Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology
JF - Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology
IS - 1
ER -