Use of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test in differentiating normal aging from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's dementia.

38 elderly control Ss performed better than did 18 patients with moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD), 33 with severe AD, or 12 with Parkinson's dementia (PD) on all measures of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). The moderate-AD group performed better than did the severe-AD group on the 5 learning trials of List A. Unlike the controls and PD patients, both AD groups showed a greater recency than primacy effect, and both performed equally poorly on recall of List A after List B had been presented. The PD group showed poorer recall on List B than did the moderate-AD group but had better recognition scores than did both AD groups. These findings indicate that the RAVLT is useful in distinguishing between PD and AD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)