Effects of Emotional Valence of Visual Stimuli on Recall and Recognition Tasks in Individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effects of emotional stimuli, particularly those with positive valence, on recall and recognition tasks in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and normal elderly adults (NEA), as well as to explore differences in task performance and response patterns between the groups. Methods: Fourteen individuals with AD and 14 age-matched NEA participated in recall and recognition tasks using photographs from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Stimuli were categorized into positive, negative, and neutral valence groups, controlled for word frequency, naming agreement, visual complexity, and phonological complexity. Recall tasks required participants to name as many paired stimuli as possible, while recognition tasks involved identifying previously seen images. Reaction times and accuracy were recorded using E-Prime software. Results: AD patients demonstrated significantly lower accuracy in recall tasks compared to NEA, with no significant effects of emotional valence. In recognition tasks, positive valence stimuli yielded significantly higher accuracy than neutral stimuli in both groups. Reaction time analysis revealed that AD patients responded more slowly than NEA, with positive stimuli eliciting longer response times than neutral stimuli across groups. Conclusion: This study highlights the unique influence of positive emotional stimuli on recognition task performance in AD and NEA. Positive valence may serve as a facilitative cue in cognitive and linguistic processing, suggesting potential for emotion-centered interventions to enhance cognitive outcomes in AD patients.