Acquisition and Long-Term Retention of a Fine Motor Skill in Alzheimers-Disease
Document Type
Article
Language
eng
Format of Original
13 p.
Publication Date
12-1995
Publisher
Elsevier
Source Publication
Brain and Cognition
Source ISSN
0278-2626
Original Item ID
doi: 10.1006/brcg.1995.1283
Abstract
This study investigated the acquisition and long-term retention of the rotary pursuit task under varying amounts of practice in 12 moderate-to-severely demented AD patients and 12 healthy older adults. Equal numbers of AD and control subjects were randomly assigned to either 40, 80, or 120 trials of training (40 trials/day) on the rotary pursuit task, followed by 15-trial retention tests 20 min, 2 days, 7 days, and 37 days following the end of practice. Performance improved significantly in both groups during the first 40 trials, while additional practice provided no ensuing positive or negative effects. Further, subjects in both groups showed minimal forgetting across the four retention rests. Therefore, the results demonstrated that AD patients can effectively learn and retain a motor skill for at least 1 month.
Recommended Citation
Dick, M. B.; Nielson, Kristy A.; Beth, R. E.; Shankle, W. R.; and Cotman, Carl W., "Acquisition and Long-Term Retention of a Fine Motor Skill in Alzheimers-Disease" (1995). Psychology Faculty Research and Publications. 120.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/psych_fac/120
Comments
Brain and Cognition, Vol. 29, No. 3 (December 1995): 294-306. DOI.
Kristy Nielson was affiliated with the University of California Irvine at the time of publication.