MoCA Delayed Recall 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which set of five words is used in the standard English MoCA Delayed Recall task?
- Face, Velvet, Church, Daisy, Red (Correct answer)
- House, Table, Flower, Blue, Train
- Dog, Apple, River, Park, Gold
- Chair, Window, Tree, Lake, Purple
Correct answer: Face, Velvet, Church, Daisy, Red
The five target words in the standard MoCA are Face, Velvet, Church, Daisy, and Red.
Question 2: How many times are the five words read to the patient during initial registration on the MoCA?
- Once only
- Twice (Correct answer)
- Three times
- As many times as needed
Correct answer: Twice
The examiner reads all five words twice during registration to give the patient an adequate encoding opportunity.
Question 3: A patient recalls 5 words spontaneously, then receives category cues and recalls 0 additional words. What is their Delayed Recall score?
- 5 points
- 7 points
- 10 points (Correct answer)
- 8 points
Correct answer: 10 points
Five words recalled spontaneously × 2 points each = 10/10, the maximum possible score.
Question 4: Which neurological condition most severely impairs MoCA Delayed Recall performance due to hippocampal damage?
- Parkinson's disease
- Alzheimer's disease (Correct answer)
- Frontotemporal dementia (behavioral variant)
- Normal pressure hydrocephalus
Correct answer: Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease prominently damages the hippocampus, the structure critical for forming and retrieving episodic memories, leading to severe delayed recall deficits.
Question 5: If a patient recalls a word only after a category cue, how many points are awarded for that word?
- 2 points
- 1 point (Correct answer)
- 0.5 points
- 0 points
Correct answer: 1 point
Category-cued recall earns 1 point per word, compared to 2 points for spontaneous recall.
Question 6: Why is performance on MoCA Delayed Recall clinically more informative than recognition performance alone?
- Recognition is not tested by the MoCA
- Spontaneous recall requires intact retrieval without external support, reflecting more severe deficits when impaired (Correct answer)
- Recognition errors indicate frontal lobe damage specifically
- Delayed recall is faster to score
Correct answer: Spontaneous recall requires intact retrieval without external support, reflecting more severe deficits when impaired
Spontaneous free recall demands self-initiated retrieval, making impairment on this measure more diagnostically sensitive to medial temporal lobe dysfunction than recognition, which provides external support.
Question 7: On the MoCA score sheet, what information beyond total Delayed Recall points should the examiner record?
- Patient's reaction time for each word
- Which words required a category cue and which required a multiple-choice cue (Correct answer)
- The number of intrusion errors on other subtests
- Whether the patient used a memory aid
Correct answer: Which words required a category cue and which required a multiple-choice cue
The MoCA protocol instructs examiners to mark whether each word was recalled freely, with a category cue, or with a multiple-choice cue, providing a qualitative memory profile.
MoCA Delayed Recall 3
Which set of five words is used in the standard English MoCA Delayed Recall task?