The aim of this thesis was to develop a questionnaire for cognitive functioning, which could possibly be used as a screening instrument for early signs of dementia in the future. The introduction discusses the often made distinction between subjective and objective measures. A background to the four articles is provided, focussing on findings of weak relationships between self-report- and laboratory measures of memory/cognition. Studies I and II provided results and conclusions that guided instrument development and validation in Studies III and IV. All studies were based on data from participants in the Betula Prospective Cohort Study. Study I investigated predictors of scores on an established self-report instrument for memory failures (PRMQ). Candidate predictors were memory performance on laboratory tests, age, depressive symptoms, and personality traits. There was no relation to age, and test performance did not predict self-reported memory, but depressive symptoms and personality did. Given the finding of a lack of a relation to age, and a bulk of research articles claiming that memory complaints are common in the elderly or increase with age, Study II used a global rating of problems with memory, and reports of perceived causes. In contrast to Study I, problems ratings were related to age, such that increasing age meant higher severity of problems. Furthermore, perceived causes of memory problems differed across age. The elderly reported aging while the young reported stress and multitasking as primary causes. With these results as a background, the purpose of Study III was to develop a new instrument (the Cognitive Dysfunction Questionnaire - CDQ) with the explicit aim that scores should be related to laboratory test performance. A global construct of cognitive functioning with an emphasis on memory systems was adopted, and an item pool was generated. Based on exploratory principal components analysis and correlations with criterion measures (laboratory test performance), twenty items in six domains were selected. Preliminary psychometric evidence showed that the CDQ was reliable, and related to age and objective measures, but not to depressive symptoms. In Study IV, twenty additional items were constructed, and the CDQ was responded to by participants in independent samples. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the factor structure derived from Study III, and refinement was undertaken by collapse of two domains and exclusion of items. The final factor structure was cross-validated. Competing models and measurement invariance across age and sex was tested. Psychometric properties were investigated for the final 20-item version.

Submitted by Viviane Lima da Cunha (viviane@biblioteca.ufpb.br) on 2016-08-19T13:56:32Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1319883 bytes, checksum: b7f172ad52e0bad426f9e0d9747442ca (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-19T13:56:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1319883 bytes, checksum: b7f172ad52e0bad426f9e0d9747442ca (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-26 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Studies show that subjective memory complaints (SMC) are very common in older adults and may be indicators of cognitive impairment associated with psychological factors (e.g., anxiety and depression) and cognitive impairment. The aim of this master thesis was to analyze the relationship between the prospective and retrospective memory complaints and performance on different measures of memory in people without dementia aged over 50 years. 81 volunteers of both sexes (68 women) with a mean age of 63 years (SD = 6.7) took part in the study. The procedure used in this study consists of two successive stages of evaluation. The first part includes screening tests of cognitive status and selection of participants, and questionnaires for assessing the prevalence of SMC. After this phase, we assessed semantic, episodic, working and prospective memory, the latter being tested through naturalistic tasks. Furthermore, a neuropsychological evaluation of various cognitive domains was performed, including attention, visual perception, language, processing speed, cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control. The prevalence of complaints in the sample was 53%. The results indicate that people with SMC have significantly higher prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms, lower overall score in prospective memory tasks and slowness in the execution of inhibitory control task. No significant differences were identified between the groups for performance in episodic, semantics and working memory tests. In the hierarchical regression analysis (stepwise method) we identified the symptoms of anxiety and performance in the long-term prospective memory task (based on time) as predictors of general and retrospectives memory complaints, but only anxiety as predictor of prospective complaints. We conclude, therefore, that different types of complaints are predicted by different variables. Retrospective complaints are related more significantly with symptoms of anxiety and objective performance. In the case of prospective complaints, they seem to reflect a distorted self-evaluation due to the symptoms of anxiety but without relationship with cognitive impairment. This work emphasizes the importance of including prospective memory tests in neuropsychological assessment protocols, as they showed greater sensitivity to detect deficits in healthy people. / Estudos apontam que as queixas subjetivas de memória (QSM) são muito comuns em idosos e podem ser indicadores de prejuízos cognitivos associados a fatores psicológicos (e.g., ansiedade e depressão) e comprometimento cognitivo. O objetivo dessa dissertação consistiu em analisar a relação entre as queixas prospectivas e retrospectivas de memória e o desempenho em diferentes medidas da memória em pessoas sem demência acima de 50 anos de idade. A amostra foi composta por 81 voluntários de ambos os sexos (68 mulheres) com média de idade de 63 anos (DP = 6,7). O procedimento utilizado nesse estudo constou de duas fases sucessivas de avaliação. A primeira parte incluiu testes de rastreio do estado cognitivo e seleção dos participantes, e questionários de avaliação da prevalência das QSM. Após esta fase, a memória foi avaliada em seu domínio operacional, semântico, episódico e prospectivo, sendo este último testado através de tarefas naturalísticas. Além disso, foi realizada uma avaliação neuropsicológica dos diferentes domínios cognitivos, incluindo a atenção, visuopercepção, linguagem, velocidade de processamento, flexibilidade cognitiva e o controle inibitório. A prevalência de queixas na amostra estudada foi de 53%. Os resultados indicam que as pessoas com QSM apresentam significativamente maior prevalência de sintomatologia ansioso-depressiva, menor escore geral em tarefas de memória prospectiva e lentificação na execução da tarefa de controle inibitório. Não foram identificadas diferenças significativas entre os grupos para o desempenho nas medidas de memória episódica, operacional e semântica. Nas análises de regressão hierárquica (por método stepwise) identificamos os sintomas de ansiedade e desempenho na tarefa de memória prospectiva de longo prazo (baseada no tempo) como preditores das queixas de memória gerais e retrospectivas, e apenas a ansiedade como variável preditora das queixas prospectivas. Concluímos, dessa forma, que diferentes tipos de queixas são preditas por diferentes variáveis. As queixas retrospectivas se relacionam mais significativamente com sintomas de ansiedade e desempenho objetivo. No caso das queixas prospectivas, estas parecem refletir uma autoavaliação distorcida decorrente dos sintomas de ansiedade e não de comprometimentos cognitivos. Através desse trabalho ressalta-se a importância de incluir testes de memória prospectiva em protocolos de avaliação neuropsicológica, pois estes demonstraram maior sensibilidade à detecção de déficits em pessoas saudáveis.

To investigate whether multilingualism can be used to predict working memory in older adults this study has used a categorical variable as well as a continuous variable to measure multilingualism. This was done while also accounting for possible confounding variables such as intelligence. Furthermore, subjective memory was investigated regarding how it can be affected by multilingualism and if subjective memory is an accurate measure of objective memory. A positive correlation between the Ospan score and composite language score was found while correlations could not be found for subjective memory. However, according to the hierarchical multiple regressions that were done, composite language score was not a significant predictor of Ospan score when demographics and intelligence were accounted for, only intelligence could predict both Span and Ospan scores. In regards to subjective memory, it was found that composite language scores could predict subjective memory and that those who spoke four languages rated themselves worse than monolinguals. Working memory tasks could not, however, predict subjective memory. The conclusions that were made were that multilingualism does not have an effect on working memory capacity but that composite language score and quadrilingualism have an effect on subjective memory.

Esta tese se propõe a estudar a memória subjetiva e social da cidade de Paraopeba-MG. Para tanto, valeu-se das entrevistas e conhecimentos orais dos idosos Sr. Antônio, Sr. José, D. Geralda e D. Maria Stella. As lembranças deflagradas pelos idosos pesquisados permitiram que a cidade fosse revelada em novas perspectivas, subjetivas e sociais. Através do diálogo estabelecido entre pesquisador e pesquisados, as lembranças foram gradativamente trazendo à luz os conhecimentos e a história de gerações passadas. Procurou-se demonstrar que a memória subjetiva está relacionada à memória social. Neste percurso, as lembranças dos idosos estariam ligadas aos conhecimentos históricos e eventos ocorridos na região, na comunidade, na cidade. Isto se deve ao fato de que a memória dos idosos pesquisados se apresenta como um rico manancial de conhecimentos: anímicos, históricos, urbanísticos, sociais, dentre outros. Constatou-se que estas lembranças se expressaram como trabalho, caracterizado através: dos silêncios, das idas e vindas, repetições, dentre os aspectos subjetivos; e quanto aos aspectos sociais, o trabalho da memória se revelou através das associações dos eventos, festas e a história da cidade. Através da escuta das lembranças dos idosos e com a finalidade de compreender e fazer as relações com a cidade, tais lembranças puderam ser agrupadas no espaço da família, da escola, do trabalho, entre outras, focalizando também os lugares de memória presentes nas lembranças dos idosos sobre o espaço urbano. Isso possibilitou recuperar, através da expressão oral, o tempo e as experiências dos idosos, o conhecimento de eventos da cidade para as gerações futuras. Adotou-se como proposta metodológica a história oral, aliada às perspectivas teóricas da psicologia social, psicanálise, literatura e filosofia, demonstrando, assim, com este arcabouço teórico, as interfaces da memória subjetiva e social. Deste modo, a presente pesquisa resultou do esforço em compreender a memória subjetiva e social dos idosos em relação à cidade / This thesis intends to study the subjective and social memory of the city Paraopeba-MG. With this purpose, interviews with the elderly Mr. Antônio, Mr. José, Ms. Geralda and Ms. Maria Stella were used. The memories brougt by them let the city be revealed in new subjective and social perspectives. Through dialogs established between researcher and the elderly, the knowledge and history of past generations were gradually emerging. This study tries to show that the subjective memory is related to the social memory. In this course, the memories of the elderly would be connected with the historical knowledge and events in that region, in the community, in the city. This is because the memory of the elderly researched presents rich knowledge: related to the soul, historical, urban, social between others. It was verified that those memories were expressed as work, characterized through: silence, comes and goes, repetition, between subjective aspects: as social aspects, the work of the memory was revealed through associations of the events, parties and the city history. Listening to the elderly memories and aiming to comprehend and relate them to the city, those memories could be grouped in spaces like family, school, work and others, focusing the places in the elderly memories about urban spaces. This made possible to recover, through verbal expression, time and experiences from the elderly, the knowledge from events of the city for future generations. It was adopted as methodological proposal the oral history, with theoretical perspectives from the social psychology, psychoanalysis, literature and philosophy, showing, with this theoretical skeleton, the subjective and social memory interfaces. In this way, the present research is a result of the effort in comprehending the subjective and social memory of the elderly towards the city

Esta tese se propõe a estudar a memória subjetiva e social da cidade de Paraopeba-MG. Para tanto, valeu-se das entrevistas e conhecimentos orais dos idosos Sr. Antônio, Sr. José, D. Geralda e D. Maria Stella. As lembranças deflagradas pelos idosos pesquisados permitiram que a cidade fosse revelada em novas perspectivas, subjetivas e sociais. Através do diálogo estabelecido entre pesquisador e pesquisados, as lembranças foram gradativamente trazendo à luz os conhecimentos e a história de gerações passadas. Procurou-se demonstrar que a memória subjetiva está relacionada à memória social. Neste percurso, as lembranças dos idosos estariam ligadas aos conhecimentos históricos e eventos ocorridos na região, na comunidade, na cidade. Isto se deve ao fato de que a memória dos idosos pesquisados se apresenta como um rico manancial de conhecimentos: anímicos, históricos, urbanísticos, sociais, dentre outros. Constatou-se que estas lembranças se expressaram como trabalho, caracterizado através: dos silêncios, das idas e vindas, repetições, dentre os aspectos subjetivos; e quanto aos aspectos sociais, o trabalho da memória se revelou através das associações dos eventos, festas e a história da cidade. Através da escuta das lembranças dos idosos e com a finalidade de compreender e fazer as relações com a cidade, tais lembranças puderam ser agrupadas no espaço da família, da escola, do trabalho, entre outras, focalizando também os lugares de memória presentes nas lembranças dos idosos sobre o espaço urbano. Isso possibilitou recuperar, através da expressão oral, o tempo e as experiências dos idosos, o conhecimento de eventos da cidade para as gerações futuras. Adotou-se como proposta metodológica a história oral, aliada às perspectivas teóricas da psicologia social, psicanálise, literatura e filosofia, demonstrando, assim, com este arcabouço teórico, as interfaces da memória subjetiva e social. Deste modo, a presente pesquisa resultou do esforço em compreender a memória subjetiva e social dos idosos em relação à cidade / This thesis intends to study the subjective and social memory of the city Paraopeba-MG. With this purpose, interviews with the elderly Mr. Antônio, Mr. José, Ms. Geralda and Ms. Maria Stella were used. The memories brougt by them let the city be revealed in new subjective and social perspectives. Through dialogs established between researcher and the elderly, the knowledge and history of past generations were gradually emerging. This study tries to show that the subjective memory is related to the social memory. In this course, the memories of the elderly would be connected with the historical knowledge and events in that region, in the community, in the city. This is because the memory of the elderly researched presents rich knowledge: related to the soul, historical, urban, social between others. It was verified that those memories were expressed as work, characterized through: silence, comes and goes, repetition, between subjective aspects: as social aspects, the work of the memory was revealed through associations of the events, parties and the city history. Listening to the elderly memories and aiming to comprehend and relate them to the city, those memories could be grouped in spaces like family, school, work and others, focusing the places in the elderly memories about urban spaces. This made possible to recover, through verbal expression, time and experiences from the elderly, the knowledge from events of the city for future generations. It was adopted as methodological proposal the oral history, with theoretical perspectives from the social psychology, psychoanalysis, literature and philosophy, showing, with this theoretical skeleton, the subjective and social memory interfaces. In this way, the present research is a result of the effort in comprehending the subjective and social memory of the elderly towards the city

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur fysisk aktivitet påverkar det subjektiva och objektiva minnet hos personer i åldrarna 65–75, samt om det finns någon relation mellan det upplevda subjektiva minnet och den objektiva minnesprestationen i relation till mängden fysisk aktivitet hos deltagarna. Urvalet bestod av 121 deltagare i åldrarna 65–75. Fysisk aktivitet mättes med Saltin-Grimby Physical Activity Level Scale (SGPALS). Det subjektiva minnet mättes genom att deltagarna fick självskatta sitt minne på en skala, samt svara på hur de jämförde sitt minne med personer i deras ålder och om personer i deras omgivning tycker att de har dåligt minne. De exekutiva funktionerna inhibering och shifting mättes med testerna Flanker, Simon, Local Global och Number Letter. Antalet korrekta svar på testen användes som utfallsvariabel. Resultatet visade på ett signifikant samband mellan fysisk aktivitet och självskattat subjektivt minne, fysisk aktivitet förklarade 8.9% av variansen. Det var dock ingen signifikant relation mellan fysisk aktivitet och objektiva minnesprestationer. Interventioner som syftar till att öka äldre individers nivå av fysisk aktivitet kan vara fördelaktigt för att minska risken att drabbas av subjektiv minnesnedsättning. / The aim of this study was to investigate how physical activity affects the subjective and objective memory of people aged 65-75, and whether there is any relationship between the perceived subjective memory and the objective memory performance in relation to the amount of physical activity in the participants. The sample consisted of 121 participants aged 65-75. Physical activity was measured with the Saltin-Grimby Physical Activity Level Scale (SGPALS). The subjective memory was measured by the participants having to self-estimate their memory on a scale, as well as responding to how they compared their memory to people their age and whether people around them think they have poor memory. The executive functions inhibition and shifting were measured with the Flanker, Simon, Local Global and Number Letter tasks. The outcome variable was the total amount of correct answers. The results showed a significant relationship between physical activity and self-rated subjective memory, physical activity explained 8.9% of variance. Furthermore, there was no significant correlation between physical activity and objective memory performance. Interventions aimed at increasing the level of physical activity of older individuals may be beneficial in reducing the risk of subjective memory impairment.

This diploma thesis deals with the topic of Subjective memory complaints (SMC) in elderly population in relation to early diagnostics of Alzheimer's Disease (AD). The term of SMC describes patients with subjective perception of cognitive impairment which is not objectivized during a complex neuropsychological assessment. The character of their subjective complaints has not been thoroughly examined, despite their increased risk to develop cognitive impairment, most likely due to AD (Reisberg, et al., 2008). The aim of this cross-sectional study was to verify the clinical significance of the concept of SMC and to characterize subjective complaints in SMC in comparison to patients with cognitive deficit at the stage of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and in comparison to cognitively healthy elderly (HE). SMC and aMCI patients did not differ in the amount of subjective complaints, but SMC patients reported significantly more complaints compared to HE. The difference in the amount of complaints reported by the patients themselves and by their informants was found neither in aMCI, nor in SMC patients. There were identified questions which may distinguish between SMC and aMCI patients, and questions which may distinguish between SMC patients and HE; that means questions able to distinguish...

Contexte : La plainte subjective de mémoire correspond à la perception de difficultés de mémoire par le sujet, alors que les performances mnésiques objectives, évaluées par un bilan neuropsychologique, sont normales. Notre recherche visait premièrement à identifier les déterminants psychologiques de la plainte subjective de mémoire et deuxièmement, à évaluer les effets d'un programme psychoéducatif dédié à cette plainte, le programme PrévMém. Méthodologie : Les participants, qui tous se plaignaient de leur mémoire, ont été recrutés soit par les neurologues d'un service spécialisé dans la mémoire, soit par le biais d'une complémentaire santé. Un bilan neuropsychologique permettait de confirmer l'absence de troubles objectifs de mémoire. Des évaluations psychologiques (plainte de mémoire, métamémoire, dépression, anxiété, schémas précoces inadaptés de Young) par auto-questionnaires informatisés ont eu lieu avant le programme (n=144), à la fin du programme (n= 104) puis un an après la fin de celui-ci (n=34). Un bilan neuropsychologique était à nouveau réalisé un an après la fin du programme. Le programme PrévMém consistait en 5 séances de deux heures en groupe, à raison d'une séance par semaine animées par différents professionnels de santé. Résultats : A l'entrée du programme, les facteurs les plus prédictifs de la plainte de mémoire étaient les schémas de Young, en particulier celui de dépendance / incompétence. De plus, les personnes qui ont été recrutées par le biais d'une consultation dans un service hospitalier spécialisé, se distinguaient des autres par un niveau plus élevé de plainte de mémoire et de symptomatologie anxio-dépressive. Le programme PrévMém a permis de diminuer significativement le niveau de plainte de mémoire, le perfectionnisme mnésique et les inquiétudes envers la maladie d'Alzheimer. Conclusion : Notre étude a confirmé l'influence des facteurs psychologiques sur la plainte de mémoire et a mis en lumière la valeur prédictive du schéma cognitif dépendance / incompétence. Elle a également montré l'intérêt d'une prise en charge psychoéducative. Les résultats suggèrent d'introduire, dans de futures interventions psychothérapeutiques, un travail cognitif ciblé sur ce schéma de dépendance / incompétence. / Background: Subjective memory complaint refers to self-experienced memory difficulties while having normal performances on standardized neuropsychological tests. Our study aimed firstly to identify the psychological predictors of subjective memory complaint and secondly to assess the effects of a psychoeducational program dedicated to this complaint, the PrévMém program. Methods: The participants, who all voiced a memory complaint, were recruited either by neurologists from a memory clinic, or through a health insurance plan. A neuropsychological assessment was performed to confirm the absence of memory impairment. The participants were administered computerized self-report psychological assessments (memory complaint, metacognition, depression, anxiety, Young early maladaptive schemas) before the program (n = 144), at the end of the program (n = 104), and finally one year later (n = 34). Another neuropsychological assessment was also performed one year after the end of the program. The PrévMém program consisted of 5 weekly 120-minute sessions, in a group setting, led by different health professionals. Results: At the time of entrance into the program, the best determinants of subjective memory complaint were the Young early maladaptive schemas, more specifically that measuring dependence /incompetence. In addition, participants who were recruited through the memory clinic differed from the others in that they showed a higher level of memory complaint and a higher level of anxiety and depression. The PrévMém program significantly reduced the memory complaint, memory "perfectionism" and concerns towards Alzheimer's disease. Conclusion: Our study confirmed the influence of psychological factors on memory complaints and highlighted the predictive value of the dependence / incompetence cognitive schema. It also underscores the value of a psychoeducational intervention. Our results suggest that it may be worthwhile to introduce cognitive restructuring that targets the schema of dependence/incompetence in future psychotherapeutic interventions.