developmental psychology in memory - Alzheimers

Question 1

what is alzheimers

Answer 1

• a slow fatal disease of the brain affecting 1 in 10 over the age of 65
• the disease come on gradually as 2 abnormal protein fragments called plaques and tangles accumulate in the brain and kill brain cells
• start in hippocampus where memories are first formed and destroy it
• spread to different regions

Question 2

what are the impacts of alzheimers and the effects on memory

Answer 2

• typically occur after 65 but can occur as early as 45
• characterised by memory loss, concentration loss, confusion and changes in mood
• affects working meomory: CE and visio spatial
• STM first affected, episodic the semantic then procedural
• loss of semantic knowledge with fine categories first then general
• less able to recognise faces and people

Question 3

how to help someone with alzheimers

Answer 3

• set up regular routines
• encourage journalling
• include cues and promts and context when asking qs
• consider getting copies of important item

Question 4

what did Badeley find

Answer 4

conducted a study on attention tasks - dual task and looking for letter z amoungst easy and distracter letters, performed worse on difficult distractor and even more on dual task

Question 5

what did sebastain and hernandez gil find

Answer 5

alzheimers doesnt seem to affect digit span