Purpose: This study aimed to examine narrative production in individuals with dementia of Alzheimer’s type (DAT) as a function of story familiarity by analyzing the correct information unit (CIU). Methods: Participants included 21 healthy older adults, 17 individuals with mild DAT, and 20 individuals with moderate-to-severe DAT. Narrative production was elicited through a spontaneous familiar storytelling task, a familiar story retelling task, and an unfamiliar story retelling task. Speech samples were transcribed and percent CIU were calculated. A 3 × 3 mixed two-way analysis of variance was conducted to examine the effects of group and narrative task type. Results: Percent CIU differed significantly across groups, decreasing in the order of healthy group, mild DAT, and moderate-tosevere DAT. A significant main effect of narrative task type was observed, with the highest percent CIU in the familiar story retelling task and the lowest in the unfamiliar story retelling task. A significant interaction between group and task type indicated that differences across tasks diminished as DAT severity increased. Notably, the familiar story retelling task significantly differentiated all three groups, whereas the unfamiliar story retelling task did not reveal significant group differences. Conclusion: The findings demonstrate that story familiarity and narrative task type differentially influence narrative production depending on DAT severity. In particular, familiar story retelling appears to be a clinically useful narrative task for distinguishing severity levels of DAT. Narrative performance patterns were discussed in relation to changes in memory systems across normal aging and stages of DAT.
Sangeun Shin (Fri,) studied this question.