A new rating instrument, the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale, was designed specifically to evaluate the severity of cognitive and noncognitive behavioral dysfunctions characteristic of persons with Alzheimer's disease. Item descriptions, administration procedures, and scoring are outlined. Twenty-seven subjects with Alzheimer's disease and 28 normal elderly subjects were rated on 40 items. Twenty-one items with significant intraclass correlation coefficients for interrater reliability (range, .650-.989) and significant Spearman rank-order correlation coefficients for test-retest reliability (range, .514-1) constitute the final scale. Subjects with Alzheimer's disease had significantly more cognitive and noncognitive dysfunction than the normal elderly subjects.