{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,11]],"date-time":"2026-05-11T13:59:23Z","timestamp":1778507963975,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":16,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"4","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JAD"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,8]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: When Ronald Reagan revealed his Alzheimer\u2019s diagnosis in 1994, it rekindled a lingering question: did dementia affect Reagan during his eight years as president? Amid countless countervailing anecdotes, Berisha et al. (2015) stepped in with an inventive systematic test. Scouring Ronald Reagan\u2019s 46 formal press conferences for specific linguistic markers, the study discovered \u201csignificant differences in variables known to be associated with the onset of dementia\u201d (962). Objective: Here I test whether Reagan\u2019s unique word usage rate decline is spurious, a function of reporters\u2019 increasing penchant for asking \u201cfollow-up\u201d questions. Methods: Focusing on the President\u2019s specific responses to distinct questions, I reanalyze Reagan\u2019s unique word usage rate while holding constant the number and type of reporter questions. Results: I find Reagan\u2019s unique word usage rate held form throughout his eight years in the White House. Conclusions: I conclude by considering the implications for Reagan\u2019s legacy and Alzheimer\u2019s research.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3233\/jad-240294","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,8]],"date-time":"2024-10-08T13:08:48Z","timestamp":1728392928000},"page":"1261-1266","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Did Reagan Decline?"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"101","author":[{"given":"Matthew N.","family":"Beckmann","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"179","reference":[{"key":"10.3233\/JAD-240294_ref1","unstructured":"Needham J . UCI study calls Reagan intellectually impaired. Los Angeles Times. 24 December 1987."},{"key":"10.3233\/JAD-240294_ref2","unstructured":"Corn D . How close did Lesley Stahl come to reporting Reagan had Alzheimer\u2019s while in office? Very close. Mother Jones. 20 January 2011."},{"key":"10.3233\/JAD-240294_ref3","unstructured":"Schwartz AB . Medical mystery: Did Reagan have Alzheimer\u2019s while president? The Inquirer. 9 January 2018."},{"key":"10.3233\/JAD-240294_ref4","unstructured":"Mayer J . Worrying about Reagan, The New Yorker. 24 February 2011."},{"key":"10.3233\/JAD-240294_ref5","unstructured":"O\u2019Reilly B and Dugard M. Killing Reagan. New York, Henry Holt and Co., 2015."},{"key":"10.3233\/JAD-240294_ref6","unstructured":"Stahl L . Reporting Live. New York, Simon and Schuster, 2000."},{"key":"10.3233\/JAD-240294_ref7","unstructured":"Altman LK . While known for being forgetful, Reagan was mentally sound in office, doctors say. The New York Times. 5 October 1997."},{"key":"10.3233\/JAD-240294_ref8","unstructured":"Altman LK . When Alzheimer\u2019s waited outside the Oval Office, The New York Times. 21 February 2011."},{"key":"10.3233\/JAD-240294_ref9","unstructured":"Shirley C and Heubusch J. President Reagan didn\u2019t have Alzheimer\u2019s while in office. CNN. 11 January 2018."},{"key":"10.3233\/JAD-240294_ref10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"959","DOI":"10.3233\/JAD-142763","article-title":"Tracking discourse complexity preceding Alzheimer's disease diagnosis: a case study comparing the press conferences of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush","volume":"1","author":"Berisha","year":"2015","journal-title":"J Alzheimers Dis"},{"key":"10.3233\/JAD-240294_ref11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"59","DOI":"10.3233\/JAD-150354","article-title":"The Reagan Diaries reconsidered","volume":"48","author":"Fins","year":"2015","journal-title":"J Alzheimers Dis"},{"key":"10.3233\/JAD-240294_ref12","unstructured":"Altman LK . Parsing Ronald Reagan\u2019s words for early signs of Alzheimer\u2019s. The New York Times. 30 March 2015."},{"key":"10.3233\/JAD-240294_ref13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Eysenck MW and Kean MT. Cognitive Psychology: A Student\u2019s Handbook. New York: Routledge, 2020.","DOI":"10.4324\/9781351058513"},{"key":"10.3233\/JAD-240294_ref14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"561","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1741-5705.2006.02568.x","article-title":"Historical trends in questioning presidents, 1953-2000","volume":"36","author":"Clayman","year":"2006","journal-title":"Pres Stud Q"},{"key":"10.3233\/JAD-240294_ref15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"435","DOI":"10.1093\/llc\/fqr013","article-title":"Longitudinal detection of dementia through lexical and syntactic changes in writing: A case study of three British novelists","volume":"26","author":"Le","year":"2011","journal-title":"Lit Linguist Comput"},{"key":"10.3233\/JAD-240294_ref16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"157","DOI":"10.1159\/000533423","article-title":"How much speech data is needed for tracking language change in Alzheimer\u2019s disease? A comparison of random length, 5-min, and 1-min spontaneous speech samples","volume":"7","author":"Petti","year":"2023","journal-title":"Digit Biomark"}],"container-title":["Journal of Alzheimer's Disease"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/content.iospress.com\/download?id=10.3233\/JAD-240294","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,28]],"date-time":"2026-04-28T09:59:09Z","timestamp":1777370349000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.medra.org\/servlet\/aliasResolver?alias=iospress&doi=10.3233\/JAD-240294"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,8]]},"references-count":16,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4"},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3233\/jad-240294","relation":{},"ISSN":["1387-2877","1875-8908"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1387-2877","type":"print"},{"value":"1875-8908","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,8]]}}}