Cultural life scripts are culturally transmitted semantic knowledge of the expected order and timing of major transitional events in a prototypical life course. This cognitive schema has been shown to serve as an important mnemonic template that guides retrieval from autobiographical memory, especially for positive and important life events. Autobiographical memory deficits are one of the earliest and most prominent symptoms in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, no studies have examined cultural life scripts in patients with AD, despite semantic memory impairments being reported even in the early stages of the disease. The aim of the present work was to assess life-script knowledge in older adults diagnosed with AD, particularly in terms of knowledge for the content of life-script events and the timing and temporal order of these events. Twenty-one older adults diagnosed with AD and 22 healthy age-matched controls completed the standard life-script task (Berntsen & Rubin, 2004, Memory & Cognition, 32[3], 427–442). We found that while AD patients produced significantly fewer life-script events, the content of the generated events were quite consistent with those of the controls and the cultural norms. AD patients were particular impaired with regard to the normative timing and order of life-script events, suggesting that these components of the cultural life script are more vulnerable to cognitive decline. The findings are discussed in relation to impaired script knowledge and semantic memory deficits in AD.

文化生活脚本是关于原型生活过程中主要过渡事件的预期顺序和时间安排的文化传播语义知识。这种认知图式已被证明可以作为一个重要的记忆模板，指导从自传记忆中检索，特别是对于积极和重要的生活事件。自传性记忆缺陷是阿尔茨海默病 (AD) 中最早和最突出的症状之一。然而，没有研究检查过 AD 患者的文化生活脚本，尽管即使在疾病的早期阶段也有语义记忆障碍的报道。本工作的目的是评估被诊断患有 AD 的老年人的生活脚本知识，特别是在生活脚本事件的内容以及这些事件的时间和时间顺序方面的知识。记忆与认知，32 [3]，427–442）。我们发现，虽然 AD 患者产生的生活脚本事件显着减少，但所产生事件的内容与对照组和文化规范的内容非常一致。AD 患者在生活脚本事件的规范时间和顺序方面特别受损，这表明文化生活脚本的这些组成部分更容易受到认知衰退的影响。讨论了与 AD 中受损的脚本知识和语义记忆缺陷有关的发现。