Attentional Blink and Top-Down Directives in Alzheimer's Disease and Aging
Item
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Title
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Attentional Blink and Top-Down Directives in Alzheimer's Disease and Aging
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:141f9b6a94b5:11994
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identifier
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12681
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Creator
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Ly, Jenny J.,
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Contributor
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Nancy S. Foldi
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Date
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2013
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology | Clinical psychology | Neurosciences | Aging
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Abstract
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It is not well understood why patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) have difficulty attending to relevant information in their environment. Deficits in top-down processing (such as difficulty using prior instruction or category identification to direct attention) or limitations in coping with rapid temporal demands maybe possible explanations for this impairment. This study was design to address attention deficits using the attentional blink paradigm that can dissociate top-down directives from rapid temporal demands. The attentional blink occurs when two stimuli (S1 and S2) are presented in rapid succession and the accurate identification of the second stimulus (S2) is reduced if it is presented very shortly after the first (S1). The accuracy of S2 was compared in patients with AD, age-matched healthy controls and younger healthy controls. We hypothesized that aging would affect the ability to keep pace with rapid presentations, but patients with AD would have additional deficits in top-down directives. Results showed that younger and older controls could utilize top-down instructions to improve their accuracy, but older controls could only improve their performance with sufficient time between stimuli presentation. This confirmed our hypothesis of age-related slowing. Accuracy in the AD group was lower overall than either healthy groups but importantly, performance was the same whether or not a priori instructions were provided. This supports our hypothesis that patients with AD are not able to utilize top-down directives. Results are discussed in the context of theories related to limited attentional resources and inhibition.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Psychology
