Older Adults’ Attitudes towards Cognitive Testing: Moving towards Person-Centeredness

Background: Research on person-centered cognitive testing is beginning to emerge. The current study is the first to focus on eliciting concrete preferences around the test experience. Methods: Adults ≥50 years old completed the Attitudes Around Cognitive Testing (AACT) questionnaire on mturk.com. AACT elicits preferences for cognitive tests, the importance attributed to having choices, and willingness to engage in testing. Results: Data are reported for 289 respondents. The proportion of participants expressing preferences varied by domain (modality [49.5%], location [47.2%], company [80.1%], result delivery [78.3–89.7%]). Importance ratings for all domains had a median of 4 and a range of 1–5 using a Likert scale of agreement. Most participants (85.5%) were willing to engage in testing. Conclusion: Older adults have preferences for cognitive tests, especially with delivery of results

Diabetes Mellitus and Depression as Risk Factors for Dementia: SADEM Study

Aim: 3Evidence indicates that the comorbidity of dementia with diabetes and depression may affect most cognitive functions. Our chief interest was to examine the patterns of cognitive functioning in individuals diagnosed with dementia, diabetes, and depression as compared with dementia plus diabetes (DDM), or dementia plus depression (DD) and healthy controls

Erratum to: Exploring the effects of coexisting amyloid in subcortical vascular cognitive impairment

Medicine, Faculty ofScience, Faculty ofOther UBCNon UBCMedicine, Department ofPhysical Therapy, Department ofPhysics and Astronomy, Department ofRadiology, Department ofReviewedFacult

Intentions do not take care of themselves : attentional and cognitive abilities required for prospective remembering

The present research focused on event-cued prospective memory (ProM). ProM is becoming aware that some ongoing event signals the need to act upon an intention formed at an earlier time. Two major goals were addressed. One goal was to identify the attentional resources required for processing the ProM event. This goal builds on current theories that understand ProM retrieval as an attention-demanding process. Two experiments manipulated the attentional demands of the ongoing task to selectively constrain resource availability for ProM. The ProM task was to interrupt the ongoing activity if a picture cue was noticed. The cue was embedded in ongoing task trials. In Experiment One, participants performed either a task that required simple speeded responding, or one that required searching for a target letter and matching it to memory. The second task elicited lower levels of ProM than the first. Experiment Two tested the effects of ongoing searching and matching-to-memory separately, by manipulating distractor and target load in a speeded yes/no decision task. Distractor but not target load reduced ProM performance, implicating perceptual search processes in this type of memory. These results were discussed in terms of a link between ProM and attentional selection. The second goal of the present research was to investigate the involvement of top-down thinking processes in ProM. This goal focused on the relationship between ProM and creativity. In Experiment One, performance on two ProM tasks was correlated with performance on two divergent thinking tests. High levels of originality predicted low levels of ProM. In Experiment Two, productions on a verbal divergent thinking test and nonverbal drawing task were scored in terms of originality and flexibility. High levels of originality again predicted low levels of ProM across tasks, but high levels of flexibility predicted high levels of ProM. The interpretation of these results was that thinking in unusual ways may interfere with ProM whereas thinking broadly, in terms of multiple conceptual categories, may facilitate ProM.Arts, Faculty ofPsychology, Department ofGraduat

Help or hindrance: the relationship between smartphones and prospective memory

Survey study on smartphone use and prospective memory performanc

Exploring Strategies to Enhance Self-Efficacy about Starting a Yoga Practice

Research to support yoga’s growing popularity marks an exciting time in the integration of this ancient mind-body practice into Western culture. Yoga demonstrates promising effects in the treatment of a range of mental and physical health symptoms and is cost-effective. However, its rise in popularity is met by a very specific demographic: practitioners tend to be female, white, and well-educated. The current study explored the impact of commercial versus educational representations of yoga in the context of a lecture about how to build a personal yoga practice. The study employed measures of self-compassion, self-efficacy, and social physique anxiety to assess changes from baseline to post-stimulus and then again post-lecture. Participants were recruited from a small northwest-based university and randomly assigned to a control (exposure to a handout of the eight limbs of yoga) or experimental condition (exposure to a copy of Yoga Journal). Exposure to differing media sources was followed by an informational presentation on how to begin a yoga practice. ANOVAs were calculated (using gender as a covariate) to analyze findings. No significant changes emerged from baseline to post-lecture for women or men with regard to self-ratings of self-compassion and social physique anxiety. However, significant improvements emerged related to self-efficacy for both genders. For men, increase in self-efficacy was greater with exposure to an educational handout. Additionally, ANOVAs were calculated to examine the overall impact of the brief lecture on self-efficacy and self-compassion. Although there were no significant findings for self-compassion, significant changes emerged over time for self-efficacy. Implications for referrals and clinical practice are discussed