PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

G Niederehe

Publications and source records attributed to G Niederehe.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1990

Measuring locus of control in elderly persons.

Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the appropriateness of using with elderly persons Levenson's multidimensional locus of control (LoC) scale that measures beliefs in Internal Control (I), Control by Powerful Others (P), and Chance (C). Data were obtained from elderly individuals in Florida and Texas and reformulated to allow cross-validation at each step in a series of model evaluations. Results indicated that Levenson's three-factor specification of control was not a valid representation of the samples' responses. A model that specified the elimination of eleven unreliable items and the formation of a new external control factor that was based on the remaining C and P items provided an adequate fit to the data for both samples. The failure to confirm Levenson's three-factor structure poses a construct-validity and measurement-equivalence problem when making age-based comparisons of LoC scores.

Aged↗
PubMed1989

Problem-solving strategies in dementia patient-caregiver dyads.

Examined was the applicability of concepts of the zone of proximal development and scaffolding to the study of dementia. Caregiver-patient dyads were compared to normal elderly dyads in the instructional strategies they used to complete the Block Design subtest of the WAIS-R. Shown by the results was that the use of a detailed behavioral coding scheme was successful in documenting systematic differences between the two groups. Potential use in assessment and intervention is discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Metamemory perceptions in depressions of young and older adults.

This research investigated how depression in two age groups related to responses on a metamemory questionnaire (MMQ), and to the correspondence between MMQ self-reports and performance on memory tests. Forty-four younger and 56 older women were clinically assessed and completed both the MMQ and a series of experimental memory procedures. Data on 11 MMQ subscales were analyzed by analysis of variance, chi 2, and canonical correlation techniques. Compared with controls, depressed subjects tended to report more generalized and extensive memory difficulties, particularly in recent as opposed to remote memory, but were not deficient in basic metamemory knowledge and did not manifest different perceptions regarding age changes in memory or regarding its personal significance. There was no evidence for a differential impact of late-life depression on metamemory perceptions, reflected by the general absence of age-by-depression interactions. Cumulatively, self-reports correlated .598 with objective measures, a relationship that did not vary as a function of age or depression. Reports about the retention of "important" information and about the use of recall strategies were identified as the only self-report measures reliably associated with performance.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Confirmatory factor analysis of the short form Beck Depression Inventory in elderly community samples.

The factor structure of the Beck Depression Inventory short form (BDI-SF) was investigated in two elderly samples, with the method of confirmatory factor analysis. Four models previously reported for the BDI-SF in the general adult population were compared for goodness of fit to the data for elderly respondents, and the best-fitting model was adjusted further for these data. Each step in the analyses of the BDI-SF responses of 199 elderly subjects from Tampa, Florida, was cross-validated with data from a second sample of 113 elderly subjects from Houston, Texas. The results confirmed that the three-factor model reported by Reynolds and Gould (1981) adequately fit the data from both elderly samples. The three identified factors were termed Negative Self-Esteem, Anergy, and Dysphoria and were considered to correspond with the cognitive, behavioral, and affective components that generally are thought to be part of the depressive syndrome. The internal consistency of the overall BDI-SF was .74 and .80 in the Tampa and Houston samples, respectively. These findings provide evidence for the construct validity of the BDI-SF by confirming that it displays a factor structure in the aged similar to that observed in the general adult population.

Aged↗
PubMed1975

Memory complaint and impairment in the aged. The effect of depression and altered brain function.

To clarify the role of memory impairment in the aged as a normal or psychopathological phenomenon, 153 persons 50-years-old and over with varying degrees of depression and altered brain function were compared for their complaints about memory and actual performance on a series of memory tests. It was found that while performance varied with altered brain function, complaint was related to level of depression, regardless of performance. Exaggerated memory complaint was considered one manifestation of a general pattern of discrpant reporting of symptoms by depressed persons, and apparently related to an underlying personality factor. The complaint of superiority of remote over recent memory was not substantiated empirically, but was considered part of the pattern of stereotyped language and attitudes characteristic of depressed persons.

Age Factors↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Signal detection analysis of recognition memory in depressed elderly.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of late-life depression to memory complaint and objective performance in a recognition memory task. Fifty-seven individuals between the ages of 58 and 88 were evaluated for depression using the Beck Depression Inventory (short form). They were then shown two stimulus lists, each consisting of high-imagery and low-imagery words. Recognition for these words was subsequently tested. Error rates and nonparametric signal detection measures were analyzed as indices of performance. Respondents gave global self-assessments of memory and, during the recognition task, also made self-ratings of performance. Depressed individuals showed more conservative response biases than nondepressed respondents, reflected in a higher false-negative error rate but a lower false-positive rate. Neither overall memory sensitivity as assessed by signal detection analysis nor self-ratings of performance were related to depression, though global memory self-ratings were. Elderly depressed individuals thus presented a pattern of greater memory complaint and unwillingness to venture responses in spite of showing small or no information-processing deficits.

Aged↗