Factors influencing rates of unsupervised assessment of short-term learning in cognitively unimpaired adults.

Abstract

In older adults with preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD), learning curves derived from validated psychological learning paradigms are reduced to an extent greater than impairment, or decline, on neuropsychological memory tests. This study aimed to examine how age, sex, education, mood, and general dementia risk, which also increases risk for preclinical AD, could influence learning curves. 1050 adults enrolled in the BetterBrains trial completed 10 blocks of ORCA-LLT learning trials over 5 days. Learning curves were derived from improvement in accuracy over trials. Participants also completed questionnaires of demography and mood, and the CAIDE risk score was computed for each participant. Most participants (67%) completed ≥6 blocks of ORCA-LLT. Older age (d = 0.75), lower education (d = 0.50), and higher dementia risk (d = 0.36) were associated significantly with slower learning rates. In older adults, learning curves are influenced subtly by age, education, and dementia risk but not by sex or mood.