MULTITASKING, WORKING MEMORY AND REMEMBERING INTENTIONS

Multitasking refers to the performance of a range of tasks that have to be completed within a limited time period. It differs from dual task paradigms in that tasks are performed not in parallel, but by interleaving, switching from one to the other. It differs also from task switching paradigms in that the time scale is very much longer, multiple different tasks are involved, and most tasks have a clear end point. Multitasking has been studied extensively with particular sets of experts such as in aviation and in the military, and impairments of multitasking performance have been studied in patients with frontal lobe lesions. Much less is known as to how multitasking is achieved in healthy adults who have not had specific training in the necessary skills. This paper will provide a brief review of research on everyday multitasking, and summarise the results of some recent experiments on simulated everyday tasks chosen to require advance and on-line planning, retrospective memory, prospective memory, and visual, spatial and verbal short-term memory

Publicly funded home care for older people in Ireland: Determinants of utilisation and policy implications

Background: The majority of older people are independent and self caring. When long-term care is required this is provided across a range of community and residential settings including the older person’s own home. Policy direction and the preference of older people are directed towards supporting older people to remain living in their homes for as long as possible. The majority of home care is provided informally by unpaid carers with a smaller proportion provided formally by paid carers. Formal care is predominantly publicly financed but may be delivered by public, private and not-for-profit organizations. The aim of this study was to identify the determinants of formal home care utilisation amongst community living older people in Ireland. Methodology: The study was cross-sectional in design using data from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA). Respondents were interviewed between 2009 and 2011; the response rate was 62%. The behavioural model of health service utilisation provided a framework for the analysis (Aday and Andersen, 1974). Results: Multivariable logistic regression revealed a wide range of factors which predict service utilisation. The strongest determinant of formal home care utilisation was self-reported difficulty with instrumental activities of daily living, followed by older age and living alone. Conclusions: The research provides a population based profile of the characteristics of older adults utilising formal home care services provided by the State. Policy implications include the need for a whole system perspective including standardized access and assessment procedures across the system and a shift in orientation away from domestic care towards greater provision of personal care at home. This study identifies a need to consider home care utilisation in older adults who self-report no limitations in either activities of daily living (ADL) or instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) when modeling the demand for home care in the future

The impact of working memory load on task execution and online plan adjustment during multitasking in a virtual environment

Three experiments investigated the impact of working memory load on online plan adjustment during a test of multitasking in young, nonexpert, adult participants. Multitasking was assessed using the Edinburgh Virtual Errands Test (EVET). Participants were asked to memorize either good or poor plans for performing multiple errands and were assessed both on task completion and on the extent to which they modified their plans during EVET performance. EVET was performed twice, with and without a secondary task loading a component of working memory. In Experiment 1, articulatory suppression was used to load the phonological loop. In Experiment 2, oral random generation was used to load executive functions. In Experiment 3, spatial working memory was loaded with an auditory spatial localization task. EVET performance for both good- and poor-planning groups was disrupted by random generation and sound localization, but not by articulatory suppression. Additionally, people given a poor plan were able to overcome this initial disadvantage by modifying their plans online. It was concluded that, in addition to executive functions, multiple errands performance draws heavily on spatial, but not verbal, working memory resources but can be successfully completed on the basis of modifying plans online, despite a secondary task load

Inconsistent blood glucose checking before driving among drivers with type 1 diabetes: Results from the Australian YourSAY: Glucose Monitoring study

In a survey of Australian drivers with type 1 diabetes, three-quarters reported not checking their blood glucose consistently before driving. They reported lack of health professional recommendation of this behaviour, less concern about safety, and preference for consuming fast-acting glucose, which may be less effective for mitigating risk

Malnutrition in hospitalised older adults: A multicentre observational study of prevalence, associations and outcomes

Background: Malnutrition is common in older adults and is associated with high costs and adverse outcomes. The prevalence, predictors and outcomes of malnutrition on admission to hospital are not clear for this population. Design: Prospective Cohort Study. Setting: Six hospital sites (five public, one private). Participants: In total, 606 older adults aged 70+ were included. All elective and acute admissions to any speciality were eligible. Day-case admissions and those moribund on admission were excluded. Measurements: Sociodemographic and clinical data, including nutritional status (Mini-Nutritional Assessment–short form), was collected within 36 hours of admission. Outcome data was collected prospectively on length of stay, in-hospital mortality and new institutionalisation. Results: The mean age was 79.7; 51% were female; 29% were elective admissions; 67% were admitted to a medical specialty. Nutrition scores were available for 602/606; 37% had a ‘normal’ status, 45% were ‘at-risk’, and 18% were ‘malnourished’. Malnutrition was more common in females, acute admissions, older patients and those who were widowed/separated. Dementia, functional dependency, comorbidity and frailty independently predicted a) malnutrition and b) being at-risk of malnutrition, compared to normal status (p < .001). Malnutrition was associated with outcomes including an increased length of stay (p < .001), new institutionalisation (p = < 0.001) and in-hospital mortality (p < .001). Conclusions: These findings support the prioritisation of nutritional screening in clinical practice and public health policy, for all patients ≥70 on admission to hospital, and in particular for people with dementia, increased functional dependency and/or multi-morbidity, and those who are frail

Positive effects of nicotine on cognition: the deployment of attention for prospective memory

Rationale: Human and animal studies over the last two decades report that nicotine can improve cognitive performance. Prospective memory (PM), the retrieval and implementation of a previously encoded intention, is also improved by pre-administration of nicotine. As with other nicotine effects, however, predicting precisely how and when nicotine improves the processes engaged by PM has proved less straightforward. Objective: We present two studies that explore the source of nicotine's enhancement of PM. Experiment 1 tests for effects of nicotine on preparatory attention (PA) for PM target detection. Experiment 2 asks whether nicotine enhances processing of the perceptual attributes of the PM targets. Materials and methods: Young adult non-smokers matched on baseline performance measures received either 1 mg nicotine or matched placebo via nasal spray. Volunteers completed novel PM tasks at 15 min post-administration. Results: Experiment 1 confirmed that pre-administration of nicotine to non-smokers improved detection rate for prospective memory targets presented during an attention-demanding ongoing task. There was no relationship between PM performance and measures of preparatory attention. In experiment 2, salient targets were more likely to be detected than non-salient targets, but nicotine did not confer any additional advantage to salient targets. Conclusion: The present study suggests that nicotinic stimulation does not work to enhance perceptual salience of target stimuli (experiment 2), nor does it work through better deployment of preparatory working attention (experiment 1). An alternative explanation that nicotine promotes PM detection by facilitating disengagement from the ongoing task is suggested as a future line of investigation. © 2008 Springer-Verlag

Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory of Personality Questionnaire: Factor Structure Based on CFA and ESEM, and Associations with ADHD

Revised reinforcement sensitivity theory (r-RST) of personality is a major neuropsychological theory of motivation, emotion and personality. This paper presents the results of a study examining: (1) the factor structure of the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory of Personality Questionnaire (RST-PQ) using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM); and (2) the relationships of the r-RST constructs in the RST-PQ with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptom groups of inattention (IA) and hyperactivity/impulsivity (HI). A total of 572 (Sample 1) and 309 (Sample 2) adults completed the RST-PQ. Participants in Sample 2 also completed a questionnaire measuring ADHD symptoms. Results revealed more support for the ESEM model with six factors than the CFA model. For both the ESEM and CFA models, both IA and HI symptom groups were associated positively with the RST-PQ constructs of behavioral inhibition system (BIS) and behavioral approach system (BAS) Impulsivity, with IA also associated negatively with the BAS-Goal-Drive Persistence. The theoretical implications of these findings for understanding the factor structure of the RST-PQ, and for ADHD (IA and HI) in terms of r-RST, are discussed

An evaluation of a community-based psychoeducation program for successful ageing

Background: The increasing numbers and proportion of the ageing population make it essential to develop and evaluate programs to meet the needs of older adults to empower them to age actively, healthily and successfully. Consequently, positive ageing programs have been developed and the need to evaluate their outcomes is essential. This study used mixed methods to evaluate cognitive and behavioural changes and to monitor psychological health and active ageing in participants of a longstanding positive ageing psychoeducation program, Successful Ageing for Growth & Enjoyment (SAGE) conducted in Australia, and to evaluate participant satisfaction with the program. Methods: Two approaches were utilised. The first involved a survey of demographic variables, measures of psychological health (depression, anxiety and stress, self-esteem and resilience) active ageing, including measures of subjective learning and behavioural change after the seminar series, sent to program participants prior to the annual program commencement, and again at the end of the ten-seminar program. The second approach was for participants to complete a Likert-rated and short answer survey assessing session satisfaction of participants after each of the ten seminars in the program. Results: The analyses revealed that of those who attended SAGE, almost half reported specific positive changes to their cognitions or behaviours, with most of these identified changes being maintained at the end of the year-long program. Participant feedback from those attending SAGE seminars was overwhelmingly positive. No clinically significant differences were seen between those who did and did not attend SAGE in psychological health or active ageing before or after attending. Conclusions: Participants who engaged with SAGE often reported positive behavioural and cognitive changes. Qualitative feedback suggested that SAGE is certainly appreciated and valued by those attending

Prospective memory in a virtual environment : beneficial effects of cue saliency

Prospective Memory (PM) research focuses on how the cognitive system successfully encodes and retains an intention, before retrieving it at a particular future time or in response to a particular future event. Previous work using 2D text stimuli has shown that increasing the saliency of the retrieval cue can improve performance. In this work, we investigated the effect of increased cue saliency in a more ecologically valid 3D virtual environment. The findings indicate that increased perceptual saliency of the cue does benefit PM in a dynamic and visually rich environment but that the impact of cue saliency does not interact with attentional load