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Lexical and nonlexical spelling deficits in dementia of the Alzheimer type
D Aarsland1, T Høien, J P Larsen
1Department of Old Age Psychiatry, Psychiatric Hospital in Rogaland, Stavanger, Norway.
Abstract:
Written spelling was assessed in 16 subjects with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) using an information processing approach. The results were compared to the performance in a group of healthy elderly subjects. The Alzheimer subjects scored significantly lower in word spelling and nonword spelling ability than the controls (F(1, 7) = 187, p < .0001), and both the lexical and the nonlexical spelling strategies were affected. The results did not support the hypothesis that nonlexical ability is preserved in DAT. In the DAT group, spelling correlated significantly (p < 0.01) with the severity of dementia, but spelling performance was not associated with the age of onset of dementia or family history of dementia.