Predictions of verbal episodic memory in persons with Alzheimer's disease

This study examined awareness of memory problems and memory self-monitoring abilities in individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Participants were 20 individuals with AD and 20 older adult controls. A global performance-prediction paradigm, which required participants to predict the number of words they would remember both prior to and after completing a list-learning memory task, was used as the online assessment measure. Offline assessment of memory involved contrasting self-ratings provided by participants about the frequency of everyday memory failures with ratings from knowledgeable informants. As expected, participants with AD demonstrated poorer recall for the word list than did controls. Participants with AD were also less accurate than controls in their preexperience memory predictions, and findings from the offline assessment method similarly revealed that the AD group overestimated their everyday memory abilities. Despite showing impaired understanding of personal memory ability, the AD group successfully modified their postexperience memory predictions so that they were more accurate following task exposure, demonstrating accurate memory self-monitoring abilities. These findings highlight the complex and multidimensional nature of metamemory. The findings further suggest that while AD patients appear able to immediately benefit from task experience, they have difficulty creating lasting awareness of memory abilities.