MoCA Delayed Recall

Question 1

How many words must the patient recall after the delay in the MoCA delayed recall task?

Accepted Answer

5 words

Answer

Five words are presented twice at the beginning of the MoCA. After a delay of approximately 5 minutes (during which other tasks are completed), the patient is asked to recall all 5 words freely.

Question 2

The five words used in the MoCA delayed recall task are presented how many times before the delay?

Accepted Answer

Twice

Answer

To allow encoding, the five words are read to the patient twice. The patient is told they will need to remember them later but is not asked to recall them immediately.

Question 3

In the MoCA, how long is the typical delay between initial word presentation and the delayed recall trial?

Accepted Answer

5 minutes

Answer

Approximately 5 minutes pass between the initial word learning and the delayed recall test while other MoCA tasks (attention, language, abstraction, orientation) are administered.

Question 4

On the MoCA delayed recall task, if a patient cannot recall a word freely, what optional cue can be offered?

Accepted Answer

A category cue or multiple-choice options

Answer

The MoCA allows optional category cues (e.g., "It was a type of flower") or multiple-choice cues for words not freely recalled. These optional cues do NOT earn full points but help determine if the failure is due to retrieval vs. encoding failure.

Question 5

What is the maximum score for the MoCA delayed recall domain?

Accepted Answer

5 points

Answer

The delayed recall section is worth 5 points — 1 point for each of the 5 words correctly recalled without any cueing. Words recalled only after a category or multiple-choice cue do not earn full points in standard scoring.

(MoCA) Montreal Cognitive Assessment Practice Test

(MoCA) Montreal Cognitive Assessment Practice Test

MoCA Delayed Recall