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Updated: Jun 19, 2026

The (Spatial) Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition
Published on: February 19, 2018
Categorical spatial memory in patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer dementia: positional versus
Roy P C Kessels1, Stefan Rijken, Liesbeth W A Joosten-Weyn Banningh
1Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. r.kessels@mps.umcn.nl
Abstract:
Memory for object locations, as part of spatial memory function, has rarely been studied in patients with Alzheimer dementia (AD), while studies in patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) patients are lacking altogether. The present study examined categorical spatial memory function using the Location Learning Test (LLT) in MCI patients (n = 30), AD patients (n = 30), and healthy controls (n = 40). Two scoring methods were compared, aimed at disentangling positional recall (location irrespective of object identity) and object-location binding. The results showed that AD patients performed worse than the MCI patients on the LLT, both on recall of positional information and on recall of the locations of different objects. In addition, both measures could validly discriminate between AD and MCI patients. These findings are in agreement with the notion that visual cued-recall tests may have better diagnostic value than traditional (verbal) free-recall tests in the assessment of patients with suspected MCI or AD.
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