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Semantic and phonemic sequence effects in random word generation: A dissociation between Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2005

KIRSTEN I. TAYLOR ,
DAVID P. SALMON ,
ANDREAS U. MONSCH  and
PETER BRUGGER
KIRSTEN I. TAYLOR
Affiliation:
Neuropsychology Unit, Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
DAVID P. SALMON
Affiliation:
Department of Neurosciences, School of Medicine, University of California at San Diego, California
ANDREAS U. MONSCH
Affiliation:
Memory Clinic—NPZ, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland
PETER BRUGGER
Affiliation:
Neuropsychology Unit, Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
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Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients perform worse on category than letter fluency tasks, while Huntington's disease (HD) patients show the reverse pattern or comparable impairment on both tasks. We developed a random word generation task to further investigate these deficits. Twenty AD and 16 HD patients and 20 elderly and 16 middle-aged controls guessed which of three pictures (hat, cat, or dog) landed on a die's top face sixty times. Three consecutive response pairings were possible: semantic (cat–dog), phonemic (hat–cat), and neutral (hat–dog). Since healthy individuals avoid repeating meaningful associates (“repetition avoidance”), an increased pairing frequency reflects processing deficits. AD patients produced more semantic and HD patients more phonemic pairings compared to their respective control groups, indicating selective semantic and phonemic processing deficits in AD and HD patients, respectively. (JINS, 2005, 11, 303–310.)

Keywords

DementiaNeuropsychological testsMemory
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 11 , Issue 3 , May 2005 , pp. 303 - 310
Copyright
© 2005 The International Neuropsychological Society

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