The present study expanded the story recognition and inference literature by investigating age differences within the older age range, differences as a result of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and extending the focus of the investigation into the consistency of responding. 304 older adults completed a story recognition task across five different occasions. Old-old (00) adults and those with more severe MCI showed poorer ability to accurately recognize inferences, and less sensitivity to discriminate between statement types. Intraindividual variability was positively correlated with increasing age and cognitive impairment, and interactions revealed the greatest inconsistency involved the false, rather than inferred statements. The findings support our proposal that participants used two different recognition strategies, and their episodic memory ability defined the efficiency and frequency of use of the strategies. 00 and MCI adults may be less able to recognize that something plausible and consistent with an event may not have actually occurred.

Current classification systems for identifying individuals at the earliest stages of dementia, based primarily on cognitive measures, may be limited in scope. The present study examined physical functioning in a sample of 304 nondemented, older adults, classified based on presence and severity of mild cognitive impairment. In general, lower levels of physical functioning and greater inconsistency in physical functioning were found in older participants and in participants with increasing severity of cognitive impairment. Evaluation of the combined and unique contributions of level of and inconsistency in physical functioning to predicting cognitive status group membership revealed that, for some physical measures, inconsistency in physical functioning provided unique information beyond level of performance. These results are consistent with the notion that inconsistency in performance may be a behavioural marker of compromised neurological functioning and that information regarding physical functioning may prove useful for identifying individuals at the earliest stages of dementia.

No description available.

L’accident vasculaire cérébral (AVC) peut entraîner d’importantes séquelles, notamment au niveau cognitif. De plus, il est très fréquent que les victimes d’AVC souffrent de troubles du sommeil. À ce sujet, de nombreuses études ont démontré le rôle crucial du sommeil pour les fonctions cognitives, par exemple au niveau de la consolidation de la mémoire et des capacités attentionnelles. De plus, des chercheurs ont démontré qu’après un AVC, les fonctions cognitives sont améliorées conjointement à l’augmentation de la qualité du sommeil, de la phase aiguë à celle de récupération (Siccoli, Rolli-Baumeler, Achermann, & Bassetti, 2008). Or, ces données concernent des sujets d’âge moyens, ce qui donne peu d’informations sur la population la plus à risque de subir un AVC, soit les personnes âgées. Ainsi, les objectifs du présent projet de recherche sont d’une part de décrire les modifications dans le temps des paramètres de sommeil et de cognition en phase de réadaptation post-AVC chez des personnes âgées, et d’autre part de vérifier la relation entre les modifications de la qualité du sommeil et de la cognition chez ces personnes. Pour ce faire, un groupe de huit sujets âgés, hospitalisé à l’unité de réadaptation fonctionnelle intensive (URFI) du CSSS-IUGS, a participé à l’étude. Leur sommeil et leur cognition ont été évalués à deux temps de mesure : tout d’abord lors de leur admission à l’URFI, en moyenne 14 jours après leur AVC, et ensuite à la fin de leur séjour en réadaptation, en moyenne 33 jours après le premier temps de mesure. Leur sommeil a été évalué à l’aide de l’actigraphie et leur cognition à l’aide d’une batterie de tests neuropsychologiques. Les résultats actigraphiques démontrent tout d’abord que la qualité du sommeil des sujets ne s’est pas améliorée de manière significative dans le temps. Au niveau de la cognition, la mémoire, l’attention, le langage et les fonctions exécutives se sont améliorés de manière significative entre les deux temps de mesure. De plus, les résultats pointent vers une corrélation encore inédite entre l’amélioration de la qualité de sommeil et l’amélioration de la cognition dans le temps, selon la latérisation de l’AVC. En dépit du caractère exploratoire des ces résultats en raison du petit nombre de sujets dans chacun des sous-groupes (AVC gauche et AVC droit), il ressort que : a) chez les sujets ayant subi un AVC droit, plus la diminution des éveils après endormissement est importante du T1 au T2, meilleure est la récupération de la cognition globale, et que b) chez les sujets ayant subi un AVC gauche, plus la diminution des éveils après endormissement est importante du T1 au T2, meilleure est la mémoire épisodique. Ces résultats démontrent l’importance d’un sommeil de qualité dans la récupération cognitive des personnes âgées ayant subi un AVC. Ils démontrent de plus qu’une importante récupération cognitive est possible après un AVC, malgré un âge avancé. Ainsi, il apparaît très pertinent de traiter les troubles du sommeil des patients âgés après un AVC.

No description available.

This study was intended to assess the generality of a particular type of cognitive structure characteristic, that of integrative complexity. Pursuant of this, the theories of H. M. Schroder and O. J. Harvey were com- pared, and their respective measures administered to 440 students (Ss) of both sexes from three different southern schools. The theoretical analysis suggested that Schroder's theory is more truly structural in nature, and is more powerful in that it is more easily and obviously applicable to a broad range of cognitive domains. Harvey's position is much more firmly grounded on the content of the interpersonal domain. Both theories claim that the characteristic of cognitive structure which is most important in determining cognitive complexity is not differentiation, or an increase in the dimensionality, of the cognitive domain, but the subsequent integration of the differentiated components. Unfortunately, neither theorist is able to define integration so as to clearly distinguish it from a dimensional position. Here again, however, Schroder's theory seems to be the stronger, since it is at least explicit enough that the locus of difficulty can be precisely identified. Further, even if Schroder is un- able to define adequately the integration concept, his theorizing suggests the importance of the possibility of super- and sub-ordinate relationships among dimensions. Results of the testing were as follows: (a) As expected, the respective measures of cognitive integration were non-significantly correlated with each other, (b) Both measures of integration were significantly correlated with such measures of intelligence as vocabulary, abstract thinking, and SAT verbal and mathematical scores, (c) Sex differences in the scores may exist, although the pattern is not clear, (d) Other sample characteristics may affect the distribution of scores, e.g. large intelligence differences, socioeconomic differences, etc. On the other hand, Negroes are not ipso facto inferior to Caucasians, even when the latter enjoy a 100- point advantage on SAT averages. Nor are Southern whites inferior to Northern whites, at least when both are of superior intellectual ability. (e) Reliability, as estimated by coefficient alpha, is satisfactory for Harvey's measure and unsatisfactory for Schroder's, (f) The distribution of scores is such that for both measures complex Ss are rare, so pools of Ss must be tested in order to obtain adequate numbers of complex Ss. This is more a problem in attempting to apply Schroder than Harvey, largely because Schroder has often not bothered to study middle-range Ss, so their characteristics are unknown. Schroder's variable (especially) is essentially inapplicable to an unscreened group of subjects. Overall, Schroder's theory seems more promising than Harvey's. Suggestions were made for improving the reliability and distribution of scores. Additionally, a translation of Schroder's theory into dimensional terminology was attempted, and some important implications of his position for the dimensional orientation were discussed. / This thesis was digitized as part of a project begun in 2014 to increase the number of Duke psychology theses available online. The digitization project was spearheaded by Ciara Healy.

Recent work in the area of social cognition has increasingly addressed the manner in which cognitive processes are affected by relatively long-term individual differences in the salience of certain social stimuli over others. The present set of studies explores the effects of differences in the relative personal importance of behavior domains on autobiographical memory and memory for frequency of occurrence — areas of memory deployed in day-to-day adaptation to the environment. Behavior domains of high and low personal importance were preassessed by means of questionnaire. In the autobiographical memory study, subjects were cued for positive, negative, rare, and commonplace personal memories in high and low importance domains. Memory dates and recall latencies were also collected. Subjects then evaluated their memories in terms of 18 attributes, including emotional and imagistic vividness, confidence of recall, pleasantness, frequency of rehearsal, and self-descriptiveness. In the frequency of occurrence study, each subject was presented with a list of 90 words that included target words representing his or her high and low importance domains. Whereas nontarget words varied in frequency, all domain words were presented with equal frequency. In the memory test, subjects were presented with pairs of target words and were asked to indicate which word in the pair had appeared most frequently. Subjects also ranked the frequency with which they have encountered domain words in various real-life social contexts. The autobiographical study yielded a large number of significant findings, many of them higher order interactions. In general, personal importance was found to mediate the effects of other variables on memory attributes; for instance, subjects judged positive memories as more descriptive of self than negative memories, but only in the case of high importance domains of behavior. Personal importance was also found to affect frequency estimates. Despite identical presentation frequencies, subjects estimated that high importance words were presented significantly more frequently in the list than were low importance words. Personal importance also had significant effects on estimates of frequency of encounter with domain words and behaviors in real-life contexts. The present findings underscore the need to examine further the impact of individual differences in the meaningfulness of stimuli on social cognitive and memorial processes. / This thesis was digitized as part of a project begun in 2014 to increase the number of Duke psychology theses available online. The digitization project was spearheaded by Ciara Healy.

The primary purpose of the study was to quantify the characteristics of certain self cognitions that occur in depressed adolescents. A secondary purpose was to assess the change that occurs in these self cognitions during a depressive episode. The intervention, in the form of guided imagery about a previous drug-using episode, was used to induce a mood change. The REP, a Personal Construct Theory measure, and the Beck Depression Inventory were used in a repeated measures design.

The main aim of the thesis was to investigate the nature of the cognitive mechanisms which underlie performance on specific visuo-spatial working memory tasks, with the emphasis on exploring the extent of central executive involvement. This research began with an attempt to investigate performance on two standard visual and spatial tasks in a small sample of mild-to-moderate AD patients, and compare this with performance on two adapted versions of the tasks (Experiments 1 & 2). The tasks were adapted to increase the ecological validity, but this adaptation appeared to alter the demands of the tasks, which prevented their further investigation as useful alternatives. The following experiments concentrated on investigating visual and spatial working memory in healthy populations. Experiments 3, 4, 5 and 6 employed a dual-task paradigm, whereby specific visual and spatial working memory tasks were combined with tasks assumed to involve executive processes. Experiments 3, 4 and 5 employed oral random digit generation as an executive task. The results of Experiments 3 and 5 indicated that visuo-spatial tasks which involve sequential processing show more interference with random digit generation than visuo-spatial tasks which involve simultaneous processing. The findings of Experiment 4 suggested that, when both item and order information are presented (i.e. with sequential presentation), subsequent recall or visuo-spatial material is attention demanding regardless of whether item only, order only, or both item and order information are required in response. These findings appear to indicate that visuo-spatial tasks which involve sequential processing require executive resources to a greater extent than visuo-spatial tasks which involve simultaneous processing. However, oral random generation is a sequential task, and requires the maintenance of serial order (in order to produce a random sequence). Therefore an alternative interpretation could be that the sequential nature of the oral random generation task gave rise to the pattern of selective impairment on sequential visuo-spatial tasks, rather than more general executive load.

Doctor of Philosophy / School of Family Studies and Human Services / Maurice M. MacDonald / This dissertation consists of three studies exploring the relationship between cognitive abilities, health, and wealth related variables among the elderly. For all three studies, the life cycle hypotheses provided the basis of the theoretical framework and utilized data from the 2000 through 2010 panels of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). The first study compared the cognitive abilities of non-married households with the cognitive abilities of married households in order to examine the effect of marital status on household wealth. The second study examines the relationship of two aspects of cognitive ability (fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence) and wealth for couples married to the same spouse for all HRS panels for 2000 to 2010. The third study examines the relationship of cognitive ability, emotional health, physical health, and wealth for couples married to the same spouse for all HRS panels for 2000 to 2010. Results identified significant associations among marital status, cognitive abilities, and health with wealth. These findings contribute to the field of financial planning by providing useful information about how marital status, cognitive functioning, and health affect the household wealth of the elderly. Financial service practitioners, regulators, researchers, and caregivers can apply these findings to develop approaches to assist the elderly manage their household wealth.