Biomedical subjects

Katinka Dijkstra

Publications and source records attributed to Katinka Dijkstra.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Body posture facilitates retrieval of autobiographical memories.

We assessed potential facilitation of congruent body posture on access to and retention of autobiographical memories in younger and older adults. Response times were shorter when body positions during prompted retrieval of autobiographical events were similar to the body positions in the original events than when body position was incongruent. Free recall of the autobiographical events two weeks later was also better for congruent-posture than for incongruent-posture memories. The findings were similar for younger and older adults, except for the finding that free recall was more accurate in younger adults than in older adults in the congruent condition. We discuss these findings in the context of theories of embodied cognition.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Event components in autobiographical memories.

Autobiographical memories contain activity, location, temporal, and participant information (Lancaster & Barsalou, 1997). Our study analysed potential dominance of activity information in autobiographical memories. The results indicated stability in dominance of the activity component, defined as similar occurrence in first and subsequent reports, and a relative absence of the temporal component in these verbal reports. Activity dominance also occurred when activity information from the verbal reports was used as a retrieval cue for a subsequent report. Temporal information demonstrated a greater lack of facilitation as a retrieval cue. These findings can be explained from the perspective of embodied cognition in which underlying perceptual states that contain activity, location, and other participant information are reconstructed during retrieval, whereas temporal information, as a more abstract component, is not.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Encoding in verbal, enacted and autobiographical tasks in young and older adults.

Young and older adults participated in a task in which they were asked to say items printed on a card out loud (verbal condition), act out a command printed on a card (enactment condition), and retrieve memories associated with a theme or action printed on a card (autobiographical encoding condition). The results indicate that items in the subject-performed task and autobiographical memory condition were remembered equally well, and both were remembered better than verbal stimuli. Age differences were absent in the verbal condition, but present in both the enactment condition and the autobiographical encoding condition. We discuss the results in the context of earlier findings demonstrating a subject-performed task advantage in mixed-presentation lists (Engelkamp & Zimmer, 1997) and age differences in enactment tasks (Kausler & Lichty, 1982).

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Implications of an advice-giving and teacher role on language production in adults with dementia.

PURPOSE: The purpose of the two studies described in this paper was to assess whether adults with dementia could assume an advice-giving role (Study 1) and a teacher role (Study 2) despite their cognitive impairments. So far, no research on adults with dementia has compared language production in a social conversation condition with that in an advice-giving condition. Moreover, there are no data on language production in cognitively intact adults and in adults with dementia in a teaching situation (e.g., a cooking task). DESIGN AND METHODS: In Study 1, we used a within-groups design in order to compare language production in advice-giving and social conversation conditions. In Study 2, we used a between-groups design in order to compare language production in older adults with and without dementia. Measures in Study 1 were the occurrence of imperatives, discourse-building components, and discourse deficits. Measures in Study 2 yielded information on teacher-role implementation, cooking-related discourse, general discourse, discourse deficits, and experimenter-related discourse. RESULTS: We found role-consistent discourse components in Study 1 as indicated by the number of imperatives in the advice-giving condition. Additionally, discourse production showed a higher occurrence of discourse builders and a lower occurrence of discourse deficits in the advice-giving than in the social conversation condition. Findings in Study 2 indicated that both cognitively intact older adults and adults with dementia successfully taught students to prepare the recipes. However, the experimenter needed to prompt the adults with dementia more often than they did the older adults without dementia in order to get them to finish the cooking task. IMPLICATIONS: Both studies demonstrate that preserved discourse and role-related abilities in adults with dementia may allow these individuals to engage in interactions involving active, established social roles. This outcome may contribute to the establishment of effective practices in which adults with dementia can demonstrate preserved skills during activities and in social interactions with others.

Aged↗

PubMed2005

Mechanisms of autobiographical memory retrieval in younger and older adults.

In this study, retrieval of autobiographical memories was compared within or without the context of a lifetime period and between younger and older adults. The results of two experiments demonstrated that memories were more accessible for younger and older adults when they were retrieved within a time period context than without such context. However, when the retrieval context was more constrained and limited to cue word memories, the benefit of retrieval context disappeared. The results also suggested that as compared with younger adults, older adults were more likely to selectively retain memories with distinctive characteristics, such as being self-relevant and emotionally intense, particularly when remote memories were involved. Mechanisms of autobiographical memory retrieval in younger and older adults.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

The role of age and perceptual symbols in language comprehension.

Older and younger participants read sentences about objects and were then shown a picture of an object that either matched or mismatched the implied shape of the object in the sentence. Participants' response times were recorded when they judged whether the object had been mentioned in the sentence. Responses were faster in the shape-matching condition for all participants, but the mismatch effect was stronger for older than for younger adults, even when the larger variability of the older group's response times was controlled for. These results suggest that older adults may construct stronger situation models than younger adults.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

The Revised Memory and Behavior Problems Checklist--Nursing Home: instrument development and measurement of burden among certified nursing assistants.

Confirmatory factor analysis of the Revised Memory and Behavior Problems Checklist--Nursing Home (RMBPC) replicated the factor structure of the community-based RMBPC (L. Teri et al., 1992). The reliability of the total score was high as indexed by estimates of internal consistency (alpha = .95), test-retest reliability (r = .86), and interrater reliability between 2 interviewers (r = .88). Notably, the interrater reliability between 2 independent certified nursing assistants (CNAs) regarding residents' behavior problem frequency was more modest (r = .46), possibly reflecting the degree to which resident behaviors capture individual CNA's attention. This may have implications for the interpretation of data from the Minimum Data Set. CNAs reported moderately severe burden associated with behavior problems in 47% of residents under their care.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Prescription and dosage of analgesic medication in relation to resident behaviors in the nursing home.

OBJECTIVES: To examine correlates of analgesic medication prescription and administration in communicative, cognitively impaired nursing home residents. Residents' behaviors were assessed using computer-assisted real-time observations as potential adjunctive indicators of pain. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study over a 4-week period. SETTING: Five nursing homes in the greater Birmingham, Alabama, area. PARTICIPANTS: Ninety-two residents (mean age +/- standard deviation = 83.86 +/- 8.55) with a mean Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score of 13.81 +/- 6.34. MEASUREMENTS: Data were obtained via chart review, resident assessments, questionnaire completion by certified nursing assistants familiar with residents' care, and direct observation of residents' daily behaviors. RESULTS: Receipt of analgesic medication was related to self-report of pain (F2,89 = 9.89, P =.0001), MMSE (F2,88 = 3.98, P =.022), and time spent inactive (F2,89 = 3.04, P =.053). Residents who received analgesic medication reported greater intensity of pain than other residents. Residents who received analgesics had higher MMSE scores than those who did not receive analgesics. Residents who received analgesics spent less time being inactive than those not prescribed analgesics. Receipt of higher dosage of opioid analgesic medication was associated with more time spent with others in verbal interaction (r =.22, P =.03). CONCLUSION: This study refines the methodology of measuring analgesic medication dosage and its effect on resident behavior. Analgesic prescription and administration patterns are related to time residents spend being inactive. Results suggest that opioid analgesics may hold particular promise in alleviating pain, as indicated by resident behaviors.

Aged↗

PubMed2003

Advance care planning in nursing homes: correlates of capacity and possession of advance directives.

PURPOSE: The identification of nursing home residents who can continue to participate in advance care planning about end-of-life care is a critical clinical and bioethical issue. This study uses high quality observational research to identify correlates of advance care planning in nursing homes, including objective measurement of capacity. DESIGN AND METHODS: The authors used cross-sectional, cohort study between 1997 and 1999. Seventy-eight residents (M age = 83.97, SD = 8.2) and their proxies (M age = 59.23, SD = 11.77) were included across five nursing homes. The authors obtained data via chart review, proxy interviews, resident assessments, survey completion by certified nursing assistants, and direct observation of residents' daily behaviors. RESULTS: Capacity assessments revealed that most residents could state a simple treatment preference (82.4%), but a sizable number did not retain capacity to understand treatment alternatives or appreciate the consequences of their choice. Global cognitive ability (Mini-Mental State Examination score) was related to understanding and appreciation. When the authors removed the effects of global cognitive ability, understanding and appreciation were related to time spent by residents in verbal interaction with others. Residents were more likely to possess advance directives when proxies possessed advance directives, proxies were less religious, and residents were socially engaged. IMPLICATIONS: Assessment of proxy beliefs and direct determination of residents' decisional capacity and social engagement may help nursing home staff identify families who may participate in advance planning for end-of-life medical care. Measures of global cognitive ability offer limited information about resident capacity for decision making. Decisional capacity assessments should enhance the verbal ability of individuals with dementia by reducing reliance on memory in the assessment process. Interventions to engage residents and families in structured discussions for end-of-life planning are needed.

Advance Care Planning↗