ATTENTIONAL PROCESSES IN AGING AND ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE.
Item
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Title
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ATTENTIONAL PROCESSES IN AGING AND ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE.
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Identifier
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AAI8708317
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identifier
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8708317
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Creator
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SANO, MARY.
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Contributor
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Wilma Rosen
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Date
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1987
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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, Developmental
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Abstract
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Memory deficits are well documented in Dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT), though little study has been given to attention. The present study examined two attentional processes (global and selective) in DAT patients, elderly controls and young controls using a modification of the Posner and Bois (1970) model of attention. The first component, a global process, (i.e. preparation), was assessed by varying a foreperiod or warning interval (WI) in a two choice matching reaction time task. The measure of global attention in this task was improvement in RT compared to a condition with no WI. The second component, selective or focused attention was assessed by presenting one of a pair of stimuli to be matched ahead of the other, thus preselecting the dimension to which one must attend. Selective attention was measured by improvements in accuracy as well as RT. Previous findings indicated that alertness and selectivity were separable and could occur together without interference.;In this investigation choice RT tasks used simple shapes to be judged as "same or different" with a warning signal preceding the 2 shapes as a global attentional cue and one shape preceding the other as a selective attentional cue. Speed and accuracy of response was measured.;Both young and elderly controls demonstrated global and selective attention, as well as the ability to perform these components simultaneously. DAT patients were relatively intact on tasks that assessed each process independently, but were impaired on tasks that assessed attentional processes simultaneously. Measures associated with selective attentional processes (i.e. accuracy) were more impaired than those associated with global processes (i.e. RT). These results suggest that (1) global and selective attentional processes are relatively preserved in DAT and elderly controls, but (2) simultaneous use of these processes is impaired in DAT relative to controls.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Psychology
