Recognition memory for several types of stimulus material was examined in patients clinically diagnosed as having early Alzheimer's disease and in normal elderly controls. Although performance deficits were demonstrated for verbal and abstract stimuli (geometric shapes and histology slides), memory for faces was relatively intact in the patient group. Patients made more false positive responses than controls, but this could not be accounted for by a general disinhibition of responding. It is suggested that a contextual processing deficit may explain the pattern of false positive responding and this is discussed in relation to previous findings of drug studies in Alzheimer's disease.