Learning characteristics of the CERAD word list in an elderly VA sample

The Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (Morris et al., 1989) neuropsychological battery, including its 10-word list-learning task, remains in clinical and research use. The present study examined learning characteristics of this word list in a clinical series of elderly military veterans referred for neuropsychological evaluation of suspected dementia. Findings are presented establishing specific normative data by age, education, race, and diagnosis on learning outcomes including total new learning, delayed recall, and recognition memory. In addition, variables such as primacy and recency, intrusion and repetition errors, learning slope, and across-trial consistency are reported. There were no unexpected between-group findings, and the current data may be valuable as a reference when patients with similar demographic and health backgrounds are evaluated.