On the nature of naming errors in aging and dementia: a study of semantic relatedness

This study investigated the nature of naming errors produced on the Boston Naming Test by patients with mild and moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD) and elderly and young controls, using a newly devised scoring system. This new approach involved ratings of error responses on a scale of semantic relatedness to the target name. Error responses of both mild and moderate AD subjects were no less semantically related to target names than were responses of age- and education-matched controls. We conclude that some available evidence of semantic loss in AD may be an artifact of the methodology chosen for evaluating naming errors.