Key Question - Dementia Flashcards
what is dementia
a term for a group of neurological conditions that cause a decline in thinking and memory skills
how is dementia causes
by damage to the brains nerve cells and connections
what are the effects of dementia
- difficulty with memory, thinking and reasoning
- confusion/drowsiness
- patients become slower in physical movements
- issues with behaviour and motor control
- not curable
- worsens over time
how old are generally people with dementia
over 65 years
how many people suffer from dementia in the UK
900,000
how much is dementia costing yearly in the uk
£2.6 billion
how can we use the working memory model to help patients with dementia
- when speaking to a patient minimise background noise / other voices so the phonological loop doesn’t get overloaded
why may elaborative rehearsal (MSMM) be difficult for a dementia patient
- it would be difficult for them to remember and repeat things and keep it in the STM and rehearse it enough to transfer into the LTM
how can we help dementia patients using the MSMM with elaborative rehearsal
- keep repeating information to help for elaborative rehearsal to transfer information into LTM
- put images / lists around the room to replace STM
what part of Tulvings LTM is affected by dementia
episodic memory
how canwe use Tulvings LTM to better understand a dementia patient
- understand that someone with dementia may live in the past, do not contradict them as it may confuse them
- semantic memory may be unaffected
how can we use Bartlett’s reconstructive memory model to help dementia patients
ask patients short questions so they do not make up memories
this way their schemas won’t fill in the gaps of missing information
strength supporting working memory model
kf - provides evidence
outline a weakness with working memory model
central executive is vague
government strategy - dementia friends
- to offer help to those with dementia
- includes dementia hubs, where people can be referred if dementia is suspected
- ## focuses on dementia care in hospitals
how can we use short term memory from multi store model to help people with dementia
- patients may forget what they have just been told as the memory wasn’t encoded
- so, be specific when asking questions to try and cue memories
Steyvers and Hemmer
- evidence that people with amnesia can be helped by having prior knowledge of what they are trying to recall
- those with prior knowledge draw on it when recalling, and, if there is damage to semantic memory, the effect of having prior knowledge is missing
- if prior knowledge can be explained or displayed, this can help someone with poor semantic memory
