Destination Memory in Mild Alzheimer’s Disease

Abstract

Abstract. In order to assess their destination memory, sixteen patients with probable mild Alzheimer Disease (AD), sixteen older adults and 16 young adults were asked to tell facts to pictures. On a subsequent task, they were asked to remember whether they had previously told that fact to that face or not. AD patients showed poorer destination recall than the older adults, and the older adults showed poorer destination recall than the young adults. Our results suggest that destination memory is highly impaired in AD.

Destination Memory for Emotional Information in Older Adults

“…In a subsequent recognition test, subjects had to decide whether they had previously told a fact to a certain face. This procedure showed more destination recall difficulties in the older than in the younger adults, an outcome replicated in subsequent investigations (El Haj et al, 2013a, 2013b. These results suggest how vulnerable destination memory is in aging.…”

“…This emotional enhancement was greater for negative than for positive faces. Our findings indicate that emotion improves destination memory performance in normal aging, a faculty that dwindles in older adults (El Haj et al, 2013a, 2013bGopie et al, 2010). Our older participants showed worse destination memory scores than younger participants, but the destination memory difference between both groups was significantly reduced when the destination memory episode had an emotional valence.…”

“…For instance, in Gopie and MacLead (2009) and Gopie et al (2010), subjects had to decide whether they had previously told a specific fact to a specific face or not, associating information with its destination. The same thing can be said for subsequent research evaluating destination memory in neuropsychological populations (El Haj et al, 2013a, 2013b. Associating information with its contextual background is the main feature of typical evaluations of destination memory, and this method finds its origin in the extensive literature assessing source memory.…”

“…Several studies suggest that older adults show declining performances in destination memory tasks (El Haj, Postal, & Allain, 2013a;El Haj, Postal, Le Gall, & Allain, 2013b;Gopie, Craik, & Hasher, 2010). For instance, Gopie et al (2010) asked younger and older adults to tell facts to pictures of famous people.…”

Destination memory and cognitive theory of mind in normal ageing

“…These procedures showed more difficulties in destination than in source recognition in older adults. This outcome was mirrored by subsequent work in normal and pathological ageing El Haj, Omigie, & Samson, 2014;El Haj, Postal, Le Gall, & Allain, 2013). In these studies, destination memory impairment was attributed to decline in executive function or those high-order control processes involved in the regulation of thought.…”