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Other Cognitive Domains (other + cognitive_domain)
Selected AbstractsApplying the choice/no-choice methodology: the case of children's strategy use in spellingDEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE, Issue 1 2002Patrick Lemaire The present study illustrates the usefulness of the choice/no-choice method to investigate age-related changes in children's strategies. This method enables independent assessments of strategy use and execution. It is applied in children's spelling strategies. Third- and fifth-grade children were asked to write down words using a dictionary or not (choice condition). Then, they were successively required to spell words using each strategy (no-choice condition). Performance showed that (a) strategy choices and accuracy differed in younger and older children, (b) strategy effectiveness was the strongest predictor of children's strategy use, and (c) having the choice resulted in higher level of spelling accuracy (especially in older children) than having no choice. We discuss the implications of these results on how the choice/no-choice method can be useful for understanding and investigating children's strategy choices in spelling and other cognitive domains. [source] The significance of dyslexia screening for the assessment of dementia in older peopleINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY, Issue 7 2008Claudia Metzler-Baddeley Abstract Dyslexia and Dementia are disorders that share cognitive impairments in attention, language, and working memory. It is therefore possible that the presence of dyslexia may influence the assessment of the severity of dementia and potentially lead to the development of atypical forms of dementia. The present study investigated the prevalence of problems suggestive of dyslexia with a brief self-report questionnaire in a sample of 195 older adults referred to a Memory Clinic for dementia assessment. Ten percent reported problems suggestive of dyslexia consistent with the estimated prevalence in the general population. This group performed significantly lower in a number of attention and language related tests but not in other cognitive domains. These results highlight the importance of dyslexia screening for the assessment of dementia, not least because the choice of treatment is guided by the outcome of the assessment of the severity and the type of dementia. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Hormone Use and Cognitive Performance in Women of Advanced AgeJOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 2 2004J. Galen buckwalter PhD Objectives: To explore the association between hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and cognitive performance in a group of elderly women (,75) using a battery of well-standardized neuropsychological instruments. Design: Equivalent samples from existing cohort. Setting: Healthcare provider organization. Participants: All women enrolled were participants in an ongoing study of the association between HRT and the prevalence and incidence of dementia. Prescription records were used to establish HRT status. Fifty-eight users and 47 nonusers of HRT participated in this substudy. Measurements: Given previous reports that HRT has a positive effect on verbal memory, the California Verbal Learning Test and the Logical Memory Test were used as primary outcomes. A range of validated tests that assess other cognitive domains was also included. Results: There were no significant differences between users and nonusers of HRT on any cognitive measures. Conclusion: Given equivalent groups of users and nonusers of HRT no support was found for the hypothesis that use of HRT improves cognitive performance in older women. [source] Progressive Cerebral Disease in Lymphomatoid Granulomatosis Causes Anterograde Amnesia and Neuropsychiatric DisorderJOURNAL OF NEUROIMAGING, Issue 2 2006Dominic A. Carone PhD ABSTRACT The authors report neuropsychological (NP) and serial quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings of a 29-year-old woman with lymphomatoid granulomatosis (LG). Disease course was characterized by acute psychosis, tremor, fever, seizures, and progressive cognitive impairment. At the time of symptom onset, brain MRI revealed mild lesion volume and normal parenchymal volume. This was followed by dramatic progression of brain lesions and atrophy over 2 years, at which point the patient expired. Atrophy was most prominent in the mesial temporal lobes. NP testing revealed marked amnesia and mild impairments in other cognitive domains. To our knowledge, this is the first recorded case of LG in which bilateral temporal lobe atrophy is evident and accompanied by anterograde amnesia. We speculate that temporal lobe atrophy was influenced by the established susceptibility of this region in various neurological diseases. [source] The Effects of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome on Response Execution and Inhibition: An Event-Related Potential StudyALCOHOLISM, Issue 11 2009Matthew J. Burden Background:, Both executive function deficits and slower processing speed are characteristic of children with fetal alcohol exposure, but the temporal dynamics of neural activity underlying cognitive processing deficits in fetal alcohol spectrum disorder have rarely been studied. To this end, event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to examine the nature of alcohol-related effects on response inhibition by identifying differences in neural activation during task performance. Methods:, We recorded ERPs during a Go/No-go response inhibition task in 2 groups of children in Cape Town, South Africa (M age = 11.7 years; range = 10 to 13),one diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) or partial FAS (FAS/PFAS; n = 7); the other, a control group whose mothers abstained or drank only minimally during pregnancy (n = 6). Children were instructed to press a "Go" response button to all letter stimuli presented except for the letter "X," the "No-go" stimulus, which occurred relatively infrequently. Results:, Task performance accuracy and reaction time did not differ between groups, but differences emerged for 3 ERP components,P2, N2, and P3. The FAS/PFAS group showed a slower latency to peak P2, suggesting less efficient processing of visual information at a relatively early stage (,200 ms after stimulus onset). Moreover, controls showed a larger P2 amplitude to Go versus No-go, indicating an early discrimination between conditions that was not seen in the FAS/PFAS group. Consistent with previous literature on tasks related to cognitive control, the control group showed a well-defined, larger N2 to No-go versus Go, which was not evident in the FAS/PFAS group. Both groups showed the expected larger P3 amplitude to No-go versus Go, but this condition difference persisted in a late slow wave for the FAS/PFAS group, suggesting increased cognitive effort. Conclusions:, The timing and amplitude differences in the ERP measures suggest that slower, less efficient processing characterizes the FAS/PFAS group during initial stimulus identification. Moreover, the exposed children showed less sharply defined components throughout the stimulus and response evaluation processes involved in successful response inhibition. Although both groups were able to inhibit their responses equally well, the level of neural activation in the children with FAS/PFAS was greater, suggesting more cognitive effort. The specific deficits in response inhibition processing at discrete stages of neural activation may have implications for understanding the nature of alcohol-related deficits in other cognitive domains as well. [source] | ||||||||||