Word Recall Flashcards
7 cards from real MOCA practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Word Recall flashcards as text
How does the MoCA word recall task differ from the MMSE word recall task in terms of the number of words used?
Answer: MoCA uses 5 words; MMSE uses 3 words
The MoCA uses 5 words versus the MMSE's 3 words, making the MoCA more sensitive to mild memory impairment.
Which of the following patient populations would most likely show preserved word recall on the MoCA despite other cognitive deficits?
Answer: Patients with pure attention deficits but intact memory
Patients with attention deficits but intact hippocampal function may encode words adequately and recall them despite other test failures.
In the MoCA, what is the purpose of testing memory during the learning phase before any delay?
Answer: To confirm the patient heard and can repeat the words, ensuring encoding opportunity
The registration trial confirms the patient processed the words, so later failure reflects genuine memory impairment rather than mishearing.
Which neurodegenerative disease typically shows better free recall performance relative to Alzheimer's disease, even at similar overall MoCA scores?
Answer: All of the above can show better recall than Alzheimer's
Non-Alzheimer's dementias often spare the hippocampus relatively more, preserving memory encoding compared to Alzheimer's.
What score out of 5 on delayed word recall is generally considered a red flag for significant memory impairment on the MoCA?
Answer: 2 or below
Recalling 2 or fewer words is associated with clinically significant memory impairment and warrants further evaluation.
Which of the following is NOT part of the standard MoCA word recall protocol?
Answer: Asking the patient to write down the words
The MoCA word recall is an oral test; patients are never asked to write the words down.
A patient scores 5/5 on MoCA word recall but only 1/5 on Trail Making and 0 on abstraction. This pattern most suggests:
Answer: Executive dysfunction with relatively preserved memory
Preserved memory with impaired executive function is characteristic of frontal-subcortical or early frontotemporal pathology.