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Psicologia em Pesquisa

On-line version ISSN 1982-1247

Abstract

BRANDAO, Lenisa; LIMA, Tatiane Machado; PARENTE, Maria Alice de Mattos Pimenta  and  PENA-CASANOVA, Jordi. Psicol. pesq. [online]. 2013, vol.7, n.1, pp. 99-107. ISSN 1982-1247.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5327/Z1982-1247201300010011.

This study investigates discourse coherence and its relation with cognitive deficits in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Participants consisted, in two groups of individuals, 18 with AD in the moderate and moderate severe stages of cognitive decline, and 16 older adults without dementia matched by age, sex and education. Discourse tasks differed according to the presence of non-informative and informative prompts. Verbal comprehension, semantic memory, episodic memory and working memory were tested. Findings showed that global coherence was affected in AD participants. Correlations between discourse and cognitive variables were observed. The strongest correlations found related global coherence to episodic and semantic memory in the informative prompt task. Results are discussed according to clinical and theoretical implications for the understanding of discourse production in AD.

Keywords : Discourse production; Alzheimer's disease; coherence; cognition.

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