To investigate the impact of helplessness-induction on cognitive performance in the aged, 66 community-residing elderly persons (X=72.5 years) were administered a word association task, disguised as a test of onterpersonal empathy, under a) response independent (RI), b) response dependent (RD) reinforcement, o c) control conditions. The subjects were categorized as either depressed or non-depressed. Three (treatments) by two (levels of depression) by two measurements (pre- vs. post-treatment) ANOVA's were performed on scores from both short term memory and intelligence measures. These suggested that the more depressed elderly demonstrated greater helplessness-induced short term memory deficits, and to a lesser extent, fluid intellectual deficits.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc935720 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Richardson, Sandra Kay |
| Contributors | Hayslip, Bert, Kenelly, Kevin J., Garfin, Deborah |
| Publisher | North Texas State University |
| Source Sets | University of North Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | iv, 67 leaves, Text |
| Rights | Public, Richardson, Sandra Kay, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights |
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