The recall of dementia‐related and neutral words by people with dementia: The ironic process of thought suppression

Abstract

Objective Thought suppression may not work effectively when people have a cognitive impairment. This study tests whether participants with dementia showed lessened or enhanced recall and recognition of dementia-related words compared to a control population. Methods Fifty participants living with dementia with mild levels of cognitive impairment and a control group of fifty-two participants without a diagnosis of dementia took part. A list of 12 words, composed of six dementia-related and six neutral words matched for frequency and length, was read out on four occasions, with the word order being varied for each presentation. Recognition was also assessed. Results There was an interaction between word-type and participant group at both recall and recognition. While control participants recalled more neutral than dementia related words, there was no difference for dementia participants. However, dementia participants recognised a significantly higher proportion of the dementia-related words while there was no difference in word type recognition for control participants. Conclusions This study adapts a social psychological paradigm to explore whether an important psychological mechanism for reducing distress can be affected by cognitive impairment. Our findings suggest that for people living with dementia, thought suppression may be either ineffective in reducing conscious awareness of distal threats or operate in an ironic fashion. While threatening proximal material may be repressed from awareness, distal threats may return into implicit awareness. This casts new light on research and has clinical implications.

Exploring longitudinal changes in implicit awareness of dementia: An investigation of the emotional Stroop effect in healthy ageing and mild dementia

“…Cognitive models have been developed that propose mechanisms by which an implicit awareness system may operate in the absence of explicit awareness (Geurten, Salmon, & Bastin, 2021; Geurten, Salmon, Willems, & Bastin, 2021; Lenzoni et al, 2020; Morris & Mograbi, 2013), suggesting a pre‐conscious process. Although an extensive literature shows that the implicit memory system is largely preserved in dementia, especially in the early stages (Cheston et al, 2019; Fleischman et al, 2005; Harrison et al, 2007; Mograbi & Morris, 2013), the functioning of the pre‐conscious implicit awareness system in people with dementia is as yet little understood.…”