Semantic priming studies, and studies of the generation effect (GE), have provided evidence to support either a structural or functional breakdown of semantic memory in dementia. To determine whether the act of generating an item enhanced its activation in semantic memory, young, elderly, and demented subjects participated in a semantic priming/generation effect paradigm. Response times were recorded for semantically related and unrelated targets presented after either read or generated word pair cues. Results suggested that generating information held little benefit for young or demented subjects in the related condition, although elderly subjects benefited more from generating information than from reading it. Results and implications or theories of dementia and its treatment will be discussed
