key question cognitive

Question 1

cognitive key question

Answer 1

how can Psychological
knowledge help us understand and help those with dementia

Question 2

dementia key question AO1

Answer 2

Effects 850,000 people in the UK in 2015 (estimated rise to 1,000,000 by 2025…doubling again by 2050)
* A progressive problem with processing information including memory. Dementia causes a decline in a person’s ability to think, understand, and remember and affects a person’s function.
* Older people usually will process information slower than younger people, but Dementia is an extreme medical case of this.
* Varies in severity from slight to severe over time: Forgetfulness, Trouble multi-tasking,
Fluctuating disorientation, Diminished insight, learning new things becomes difficult, Severe
disorientation to time and place, no short term memory, loss of speech
* It is important because we have no cure/treatment so we have to ensure we can help them

Question 3

Dementia A02 MSM

Answer 3

• Short Term Memory is affected by dementia
• A lot of the ‘forgetting’ seen in dementia is because the information has never been encoded into STM (they cannot pay attention to pass it into STM)
• We can help them by giving them reminders and notes about tasks which they are supposed to complete

Question 4

dementia AO2 WMM

Answer 4

• They have a declining Central Executive which means that they have difficulty paying
  attention/shifting attention which leads to lack of functioning
• We should only give them one thing to do at a time (one task and one task only at a time)
• Don’t have too many people talking to them at the same time

Question 5

dementia AO2 reconstructive

Answer 5

If a person with dementia is saying confusing and mixed up things it might be because their
Schemas are muddled e.g. they may confuse their adult children with their own brothers and sisters because they fill the gap in their mind with someone familiar.
* You can give them things to remind them (cue) their correct schemas but USUALLY you just have to go with what they have said and don’t correct them

Question 6

dementia AO2 tulving

Answer 6

Episodic Memory decreases over time whereas Semantic remains fairly stable (Nyberg, 2003)
* The fading of Episodic memory starts in the ‘present’ and then spreads throughout the past.
* This is why those with dementia can remember information from a long time ago
* ‘Validation therapy’- if they’re going to be confused because they’re ‘stuck in time’ make the situations they’re in as close to that situation as you can