Controlled and automatic memory process in Alzheimer's disease.

The aim of this study was to examine the contribution of controlled (or conscious) and automatic (or unconscious) memory processes to the performance of a stem-completion recall task by persons with Alzheimer's disease and a matched group of healthy elderly individuals. The recall task made use of the process dissociation procedure of Jacoby (1991), which allows the separate estimation of conscious and unconscious influences on memory. Recollection was found to be severely impaired in the community dwelling demented patients. Further, the estimates of the automatic processing were also found to be reduced, although there was considerable overlap in the performance of the two groups on this parameter. It was found that the residual capacity of Alzheimer's patients to recall previously learned information was supported to a substantial degree by their automatic memory processes.