Cognition and Mood Flashcards
Cognition
complex set of mental activities through which individuals acquire, process, store, retrieve, and use information
Processes of Cognition
Awareness
Remembering
Reasoning
Decision making
Understanding
Using language
Piaget’s theory
Cognition is an orderly, sequential process
Four major stages
Sensorimotor
Preoperational
Concrete operational
Formal operational
Vygotsky’s theory
Children learn through their culture and through social interactions with other people
Children develop differet skills depending on the values and teaching methods of their native culture
Information-Processing Theory
Mind is continuously evolving computational system that takes in information, operates on it and converts it to answers
Memory= Most important part of learning
Application to nursing
- Piaget’s theory gives an overview of pediatric cognitive development
- Vygotsky’s theory emphasizes the importance of considering different cultures and ethnicities and their impact on learning information
- Information-processing theory emphasizes that cognitive growth continues through all ages
- Normal range of cognitive develpment is broad and variable, nurse should assess client’s abilities to learn new things and rationalize before planning teaching strategies
Common reasons for decline
- Circulatory problems (Perfusion)
- Medication or Alcohol Use
- Nutritional deficiencies
- Thyroid Imbalance
- Alzheimer’s Disease
Changes with age - decline in which abilities?
- Information processing speed decreases
- Ability to divide or switch attention more difficult
- Ability to maintain sustained attention declines
- Ability to filter irrelevant information more difficult
- Short-term memory remains stable
- Long-term memory exhibits greater decline
- Aspects of language well preserved
- Drawing/Constructing ability decreases
- Abstraction and mental flexibility decreases slightly
- Accumulation of practical experiences or wisdom continues
Strategies for older adults to address cognitive changes?
- Participating in daily activities
- Using such reminders as lists and calendars
- Using such mnemonic strategies as word association to learn new information
- Exercising regularly
- Maintaining social supports - avoid isolation
- don’t accept steriotypes about aging
- Establishing routines
- Focusing on the task at hand.
- Have a home (same place) for objects
AGING
TRUE=Cognitive skills become increasingly complex advancing from childhood to adulthood
TRUE=Changes in cognition experienced by older adults relate to genetics or environment
TRUE=Most age-related changes are minor: short-term memory changes little, long-term has more noticeable decline
Significant cognitive declines are not inevitable and not a normal part of aging
Definition of Psychosis
abnormal mental state alters behavior, thoughts, feelings, perceptions
Delusions
Rigid, false beliefs- “staff are spies”
- Delusions of influence (Believe that their thought and actions are controlled by outside force)
- Delusions of persecution (Believe that others are trying to harm)
- Delusions of reference (Believe that some events in the environment have special meaning to, and directed at the patient)
- Grandiose delusions (The patient’s feelings of having special power and knowledge or special relationships with important figures)
- Somatic delusions (Feelings that the body has been manipulated by outside forces)
- Delusion of love (Belive that he has a special romantic relationship with a public famous figure)
- Nihilism (Patient believe that the self world and even time has been lost or destroyed)
illusions
- “pump alarm is a telephone”
- Distorted perceptions of actual sights, sounds, and other stimuli
- Illusions may occur more often when attention is not focused on the sensory modality, or when ther is strong affective state.
For example, in a dark, a frightened person is more likely to perceive the outline of a bush as that of an attacker.
Hallucinations
Imagined sensory experiences-”hearing voices”
Definition
- Involve neurological conditions
- Causes complex
- May not be diagnosed until child is old enough to read, write
- disruption of normal brain function
- alterations in physical or psychological health
- In cases in which cognitive impairment is a defining characteristic of a disorder, cognitive function may not be so easily restored
Physical traits associated with causes of intellectual disability
Down syndrome
fragie x syndrome
fetal alcohol syndrome
Definition
- Progressive loss of cognitive function
- Affects many critical functions
- Lose ability to solve problems
- May experience personality changes
- Not normal part of aging
- Many diseases may cause dementia
Conditions that mimic dementia
- Age-related cognitive decline
- Mild cognitive impairment
- Depression or other emotional problems
- Delirium
- Difficult to diagnose in early stages
Oxygenation
- Issues with oxygenation can decrease the amount of oxygen reaching the brain, resulting in cognitive impairment, coma, and death
