Background: 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.
Objective: 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.
Methods: 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.
Results: 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.
Conclusions: In older adults, learning curves are influenced subtly by age, education, and dementia risk but not by sex or mood.
Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; dementia risk; learning; memory; neuropsychological assessment.