MoCA Word Recall 4

Question 1

How does the MoCA word recall task differ from the MMSE word recall task in terms of the number of words used?

Accepted Answer

MoCA uses 5 words; MMSE uses 3 words

Answer

The MoCA uses 5 words versus the MMSE's 3 words, making the MoCA more sensitive to mild memory impairment.

Question 2

Which of the following patient populations would most likely show preserved word recall on the MoCA despite other cognitive deficits?

Accepted Answer

Patients with pure attention deficits but intact memory

Answer

Patients with attention deficits but intact hippocampal function may encode words adequately and recall them despite other test failures.

Question 3

In the MoCA, what is the purpose of testing memory during the learning phase before any delay?

Accepted Answer

To confirm the patient heard and can repeat the words, ensuring encoding opportunity

Answer

The registration trial confirms the patient processed the words, so later failure reflects genuine memory impairment rather than mishearing.

Question 4

Which neurodegenerative disease typically shows better free recall performance relative to Alzheimer's disease, even at similar overall MoCA scores?

Accepted Answer

All of the above can show better recall than Alzheimer's

Answer

Non-Alzheimer's dementias often spare the hippocampus relatively more, preserving memory encoding compared to Alzheimer's.

Question 5

What score out of 5 on delayed word recall is generally considered a red flag for significant memory impairment on the MoCA?

Accepted Answer

2 or below

Answer

Recalling 2 or fewer words is associated with clinically significant memory impairment and warrants further evaluation.

(MoCA) Montreal Cognitive Assessment Practice Test