Abstract: The method of examining the early memory impairments of Alzheimer's di sease was investigated with word delayed recall, memory span, and dual task wor k ing memory tests. Four subject groups, including two normal youth groups, a norm al elder group, and a probable AD group, participated in this study. The results showed that: (1) the word delayed recall probability had no significant differe nce between two youth groups and between the young and the elderly subjects, how ever, it was significantly damaged in the PAD subjects; (2) two groups of young subjects had similar performance in the dual task working memory tests, and the elderly subjects showed some decrease in the performance, but the PAD had more i mpairment in this task; (3) all groups of subjects were different from each othe r in the memory span task. These results indicated that the word delayed recall and the dual task working memory tests may be useful in examining the early mem ory impairments of Alzheimer's disease.

Key words: Alzheimer's disease, memory impairments, word delayed recall, dual task working memory