Use of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test in differentiating normal aging from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's dementia.

Abstract

Elderly control subjects (n = 38) performed better than did patients with moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD; n = 18), severe AD (n = 33), or Parkinson's dementia (PD; n = 12) on all measures of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). The moderate-AD group performed better than did the severe-AD group on the 5 learning trials of List A. Unlike the controls and PD patients, both AD groups showed a greater recency than primacy effect, and both performed equally poorly on recall of List A after List B had been presented. The PD group showed poorer recall on List B than did the moderate-AD group but had better recognition scores than did both AD groups