scholarly journals Changing our thinking about changing their thinking in older adulthood

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (9) ◽  
pp. 1405-1407
Author(s):  
Viviana M. Wuthrich
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Cognitive Deficits ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Cognitive Changes ◽  
Older Adulthood ◽  
New Learning

It is well-established that as people age, deterioration in cognitive abilities including processing speed, memory, and cognitive flexibility occurs, although vast individual differences occur in the rate and consequences of this decline (Christensen, 2001). Anxiety and depression in late life are also associated with specific cognitive deficits in memory and executive functioning that may impact on new learning (Yochim et al., 2013). Therefore, it is possible that cognitive changes make it more difficult for older adults to learn how to change their thinking particularly in the context of psychological therapy.

scholarly journals Developing a Spatial-Skills-Focused Music Program for Older Adults With Changes in Cognition

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 291-292
Author(s):  
Jennie Dorris ◽  
Juleen Rodakowski
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Rank Test ◽  
Music Notation ◽  
Spatial Skills ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
Professional Musicians ◽  
Cognitive Changes ◽  
Music Program ◽  
Orientation Test

Abstract Older adults with cognitive changes need stimulating programming to maximize their cognitive abilities. One area to maximize includes spatial skills, its decline can lead to disorientation and wandering. Music has potential to maximize spatial skills: reading music’s notation is associated with enhanced spatial skills in children and professional musicians. It’s critical to understand the potential impact of a spatially focused music program for older adults with changing cognition; if successful, future music programs could support people staying orientated in their environments and living independently longer. We developed and assessed a six-week marimba program focused on reading music with 15 older adults ages 65-89 with changes in cognition. We compared their scores on the Orientation Test from the Test of Visual Perceptual Skills pre- and post-intervention and assessed if participants self-selected to read music notation. Participants scored an average Modified Mini Mental State Examination (3MSE) score of 81.3 (SD = 11.0). On average, participants’ scores on the Orientation Test moved from 13.4 (SD =1.9) to 14.1 (SD= 2.7), providing a cohen’s d effect size of 0.3. Over the six weeks, 11 out of the 15 participants selected to read music for at least one class, indicating a statistically significant change using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test (Z = -3.16, p < 0.01), suggesting that older adults with cognitive changes may be able to learn to read music. This is important, as a spatially focused music program may maximize spatial skills that older adults need to successfully navigate their world safely and independently.

scholarly journals THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COGNITION, FUNCTIONAL ABILITIES, AND THE LATENT DEMENTIA PHENOTYPE AMONG CENTENARIANS

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S965-S965
Author(s):  
Jonathan Sober ◽  
John L Woodard ◽  
L Stephen Miller ◽  
Adam Davey ◽  
Peter Martin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Latent Variable ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Cognitive Status ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Functional Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Changes ◽  
Dementia Severity

Abstract Adequate assessment of cognitive abilities and functional capacity is essential for a diagnosis of dementia. However, cognition is only moderately related to functional status, and this relationship is poorly understood among centenarians, a group of older adults with high risk for dementia. A bifactor structural equation model can be used to delineate the variance attributed to dementia-specific related cognitive changes (i.e., the latent variable delta) and the variance due to general intelligence (i.e., g’). This study aimed to determine the validity of delta as a marker of cognitive decline among centenarians. It was hypothesized that delta was correlated with cognitive status, functional abilities and, dementia severity. Overall, 244 community dwelling centenarians (Mage = 100.58, 84.8% female) were recruited through the Georgia Centenarian Study, a population-based study of octogenarians and centenarians from northern Georgia. Older adults were administered measures of cognition and a self-report measure of functional abilities. Latent variable scores (i.e., g’ and delta) were modeled and correlated with standard global cognitive screening measures (i.e., MMSE) and measures of dementia severity. Results indicate that delta was significantly correlated with functional ability and cognitive abilities. Consistent with our hypotheses, delta was also significantly related to dementia severity. Overall, estimates of the latent dementia phenotype, delta, were significantly related to cognitive and functional abilities among centenarians, providing validation of delta as a useful index of dementia severity.

Positive, but Not Negative, Self-Perceptions of Aging Predict Cognitive Function Among Older Adults

2020 ◽  
pp. 009141502091768 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kellie E. Brown ◽  
Jeehoon Kim ◽  
Tara Stewart ◽  
Erika Fulton ◽  
Anna C. McCarrey
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Neuropsychological Battery ◽  
Short Delay ◽  
Older Adulthood ◽  
Self Perceptions ◽  
Two Measures ◽  
Perceptions Of Aging

Self-perceptions of aging (SPA) refer to attitudes about one’s aging process and are linked to physical health and longevity. How SPA correlates with cognitive function in older adulthood is less well known. 136 older adults were administered a multifaceted SPA measure, The Brief Ageing Perceptions Questionnaire (B-APQ), in addition to a demographic form and a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. Positive and negative subscales of the B-APQ were correlated with aspects of cognitive function. Regression analyses revealed that only the positive B-APQ subscales predicted mental status ( β = .19, p < .05), short-delay memory ( β = .16, p < .05), processing speed ( β = −.21, p < .05), and two measures of executive function ( β = −.21, p < .01; β = .18, p < .05). This is the first study to demonstrate that positive dimensions of SPA relate to cognitive function in older adulthood.

scholarly journals CANCER, COGNITION, AND COMMUNICATION: A 2-DAY INTERPROFESSIONAL GERIATRIC PSYCHO-ONCOLOGY SYMPOSIUM

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S640-S640
Author(s):  
Natalie Gangai ◽  
Ruth Manna ◽  
Smita Banerjee ◽  
Rosario Costas Muniz ◽  
Christian Nelson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Cognitive Deficits ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Geriatric Medicine ◽  
Skills Training ◽  
Complex Case ◽  
Patient Centered ◽  
Cognitive Changes

Abstract Background: Most cancer deaths are in patients older than 65 years. Healthcare professionals (HCPs) caring for older adults with cancer must be equipped with skills to manage cognitive related changes and the nuances of communication with patients and caregivers. Methods: A two-day interprofessional symposium was developed to increase knowledge regarding 1) chemotherapy-related cognitive changes; 2) distress, delirium, dementia and depression in older cancer patients; 3) communication with patients with cognitive deficits and their caregivers; 4) decision making capacity. Presenters include geriatric medicine, geriatric psychiatry, occupational therapy and legal, ethics and communication experts. Day one centered on didactics with a complex case interprofessional discussion. Day two comprised of a communication skills training consisting of three modules: Geriatrics 101, Communication and Cognitive Deficits and Shared Decision Making. Participants role-played with simulated older adult patients and caregivers. Knowledge, self-efficacy and satisfaction were assessed. Results: A total of 75 people attended day one and 33 people attended day two. Most attendees were white (74.4%) and female (85.4%). Nurses (36.6%), social workers (29.3%), physicians (14.6%), others (19.5%) were represented. Mean knowledge increased (t=-3.23, df (13), p&lt;0.05) from pre (M=0.83) to post (M=0.96). Mean self-efficacy in communication skills increased significantly across the three modules from 3.33 to 4.51 on a 5-point Likert scale (t=-6.40, df=23, p&lt;0.001). Discussion: This two-day symposium shows an increase of knowledge and self-efficacy among HCPs caring for older adults. Skills related to cognitive changes and communication are essential to providing patient-centered care and making shared decisions with older adults and their caregivers.

The Role of Processing Speed and Cognitive Control on Word Retrieval in Aging and Aphasia

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Yasmeen Faroqi-Shah ◽  
Megan Gehman
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Control Word ◽  
Healthy Adults ◽  
Word Retrieval ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Language Deficit

Purpose When speakers retrieve words, they do so extremely quickly and accurately—both speed and accuracy of word retrieval are compromised in persons with aphasia (PWA). This study examined the contribution of two domain-general mechanisms: processing speed and cognitive control on word retrieval in PWA. Method Three groups of participants, neurologically healthy young and older adults and PWA ( n = 15 in each group), performed processing speed, cognitive control, lexical decision, and word retrieval tasks on a computer. The relationship between word retrieval speed and other tasks was examined for each group. Results Both aging and aphasia resulted in slower processing speed but did not affect cognitive control. Word retrieval response time delays in PWA were eliminated when processing speed was accounted for. Word retrieval speed was predicted by individual differences in cognitive control in young and older adults and additionally by processing speed in older adults. In PWA, word retrieval speed was predicted by severity of language deficit and cognitive control. Conclusions This study shows that processing speed is compromised in aphasia and could account for their slowed response times. Individual differences in cognitive control predicted word retrieval speed in healthy adults and PWA. These findings highlight the need to include nonlinguistic cognitive mechanisms in future models of word retrieval in healthy adults and word retrieval deficits in aphasia.

scholarly journals Association of depression and diabetes mellitus with processing speed, inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility in older adults with mild cognitive impairment

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (S6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mônica Vieira Costa ◽  
Jonas Jardim de Paula ◽  
Rafaela Ávila ◽  
Lívia Rabelo Pires ◽  
Marco Túlio Cintra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Diabetes Mellitus ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Processing Speed

Seeking and Resolving Complex Online Health Information

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Sharit ◽  
Jessica Taha ◽  
Ronald W. Berkowsky ◽  
Sara J. Czaja
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Information Search ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Search Time ◽  
Online Health Information ◽  
Complex Health Problems ◽  
Similar Search

Presently, adults can exploit a vast amount of online health information for solving relatively complex health problems. This study examined the performance of 60 adults ranging in age from 18-82 years on a complex online health information search task. Measures of search time, amount of search, search accuracy, and six cognitive abilities were obtained. The older participants exhibited similar search accuracy, significantly less amount of search, and significantly longer time to complete the problem compared to the younger participants. For the younger participants having higher cognitive ability typically translated into significantly better search accuracy and greater amount of search accomplished. For the older participants, only processing speed significantly distinguished the lower and higher ability older adults on search accuracy and none of the ability measures differentiated these participants on amount of search. These differences and their implications are discussed in the context of supporting older online health information seekers.

scholarly journals Declarative memory, but not executive function, is associated with temporal discounting in older adults

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karolina Maria Lempert ◽  
David A. Wolk ◽  
Joe Kable
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Declarative Memory ◽  
Temporal Discounting ◽  
Risky Choice ◽  
Semantic Fluency ◽  
Cognitively Normal ◽  
Trade Offs

People often make decisions involving trade-offs between smaller immediate and larger delayed rewards. In intertemporal choices such as these, individuals tend to discount the value of future rewards, a tendency known as temporal discounting. Most people exhibit some degree of temporal discounting, but the rate at which people discount future rewards varies widely. Two neurocognitive systems have been proposed as potential candidates for mediating individual differences in discounting: executive function and declarative memory. Both of these functions decline as people age, at rates that vary across individuals. Here we leverage this variability in cognitive abilities among older adults (both cognitively normal and with mild cognitive impairment, MCI) to investigate associations between temporal discounting and executive function versus declarative memory. We find that neuropsychological measures of declarative memory (episodic memory retrieval and semantic fluency), but not executive function (Trail Making Test and lexical fluency), are associated with temporal discounting. People with better memory discount delayed rewards less. Consistent with this, individuals diagnosed with MCI show steeper discount rates compared to cognitively normal older adults. In contrast, executive function, but not declarative memory, is associated with the extent to which an individual is risk-neutral, or expected-value maximizing, in a risky choice task. These findings elucidate the inconsistent literature on aging and economic preferences, and they suggest that distinct neural systems mediate individual differences in the risk and time domain.

scholarly journals Individual differences in cortical processing speed predict cognitive abilities: a model-based cognitive neuroscience account

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna-Lena Schubert ◽  
Michael D. Nunez ◽  
Dirk Hagemann ◽  
Joachim Vandekerckhove
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Cognitive Modeling ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Neural Processing ◽  
Ability Test ◽  
Evidence Accumulation

AbstractPrevious research has shown that individuals with greater cognitive abilities display a greater speed of higher-order cognitive processing. These results suggest that speeded neural information-processing may facilitate evidence accumulation during decision making and memory updating and thus yield advantages in general cognitive abilities. We used a hierarchical Bayesian cognitive modeling approach to test the hypothesis that individual differences in the velocity of evidence accumulation mediate the relationship between neural processing speed and cognitive abilities. We found that a higher neural speed predicted both the velocity of evidence accumulation across behavioral tasks as well as cognitive ability test scores. However, only a small part of the association between neural processing speed and cognitive abilities was mediated by individual differences in the velocity of evidence accumulation. The model demonstrated impressive forecasting abilities by predicting 36% of individual variation in cognitive ability test scores in an entirely new sample solely based on their electrophysiological and behavioral data. Our results suggest that individual differences in neural processing speed might affect a plethora of higher-order cognitive processes, that only in concert explain the large association between neural processing speed and cognitive abilities, instead of the effect being entirely explained by differences in evidence accumulation speeds.

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