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- Eriksson Sörman, Daniel, 1974-, et al.
(author)
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Occupational cognitive complexity and episodic memory in old age
- 2021
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In: Intelligence. - : Elsevier. - 0160-2896 .- 1873-7935. ; 89
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The aim of this study was to investigate occupational cognitive complexity of main lifetime occupation in relation to level and 15-year change in episodic memory recall in a sample of older adults (≥ 65 years, n = 780). We used latent growth curve modelling with occupational cognitive complexity (O*NET indicators) as independent variable. Subgroup analyses in a sample of middle-aged (mean: 49.9 years) men (n = 260) were additionally performed to investigate if a general cognitive ability (g) factor at age 18 was predictive of future occupational cognitive complexity and cognitive performance in midlife. For the older sample, a higher level of occupational cognitive complexity was related to a higher level of episodic recall (β = 0.15, p < .001), but the association with rate of change (β = 0.03, p = .64) was not statistically significant. In the middle-aged sample, g at age 18 was both directly (β = 0.19, p = .01) and indirectly (via years of education after age 18, ab = 0.19) predictive of midlife levels of occupational cognitive complexity. Cognitive ability at age 18 was also a direct predictor of midlife episodic recall (β = 0.60, p ≤ 0.001). Critically, entry of the early adult g factor attenuated the association between occupational complexity and cognitive level (from β = 0.21, p = .01 to β = 0.12, p = .14). Overall, our results support a pattern of preserved differentiation from early to late adulthood for individuals with different histories of occupational complexity.
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| 2. |
- Vega-Mendoza, Mariana, et al.
(author)
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Concurrent use of animacy and event-knowledge during comprehension : Evidence from event-related potentials
- 2021
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In: Neuropsychologia. - : Elsevier. - 0028-3932 .- 1873-3514. ; 152
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In two ERP experiments, we investigated whether readers prioritize animacy over real-world event-knowledge during sentence comprehension. We used the paradigm of Paczynski and Kuperberg (2012), who argued that animacy is prioritized based on the observations that the ‘related anomaly effect’ (reduced N400s for context-related anomalous words compared to unrelated words) does not occur for animacy violations, and that animacy violations but not relatedness violations elicit P600 effects. Participants read passive sentences with plausible agents (e.g., The prescription for the mental disorder was written by the psychiatrist) or implausible agents that varied in animacy and semantic relatedness (schizophrenic/guard/pill/fence). In Experiment 1 (with a plausibility judgment task), plausible sentences elicited smaller N400s relative to all types of implausible sentences. Crucially, animate words elicited smaller N400s than inanimate words, and related words elicited smaller N400s than unrelated words, but Bayesian analysis revealed substantial evidence against an interaction between animacy and relatedness. Moreover, at the P600 time-window, we observed more positive ERPs for animate than inanimate words and for related than unrelated words at anterior regions. In Experiment 2 (without judgment task), we observed an N400 effect with animacy violations, but no other effects. Taken together, the results of our experiments fail to support a prioritized role of animacy information over real-world event-knowledge, but they support an interactive, constraint-based view on incremental semantic processing.
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| 3. |
- Vega Mendoza, Mariana, et al.
(author)
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Language learning for people living with dementia and their carers: A feasibility study
- 2021
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In: Alzheimer's & Dementia. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 1552-5260 .- 1552-5279. ; 17:S6
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background Converging evidence from across the world suggests positive effects of bilingualism on cognitive ageing and dementia, including a ca. 4-6 years delay in the onset of dementia and’or Mild Cognitive Impairment. However, it is less clear whether language learning can also have a positive effect after the onset of dementia. A positive influence would include psychological and social variables, such as patients’ well-being and their relationship with relatives and carers.Method We examined the feasibility and tolerability of language learning for people in early stages of dementia and their family carers in two Scottish Dementia Day Care Centres. A total of 12 people with dementia and 7 family carers participated in the study. All participants had only limited experience of language learning and none were bi-/multilingual. The 2-week courses of beginners Italian were delivered by specially trained tutors from Lingo Flamingo, a social enterprise specialising in language teaching for older learners and learners with Dementia. Before and after the course, we conducted focus group sessions with learners and their carers as well as interviews with teachers and Day Centre care workers.Results Qualitative analyses revealed a positive perception of the courses by patients, carers, and centre managers, impacting both the individual (e.g., boosting self-esteem) and group (e.g., socialising) levels. No adverse effects (e.g., confusion) were reported. The family carers perceived the courses as empowering, as they allowed them to take an active part. The courses led also to a higher attendance in other activities conducted in the Day Care Centre.Conclusions Despite initial fears from professional carers that being confronted with the task of learning a new language might be stressful and lead to frustration and confusion, all participants reported a highly positive experience of the course, including a higher self-esteem and self-confidence as well as establishment of new social contacts and a more positive attitude to other activities of the day care centre. Further studies will be required to determine the optimal frequency, intensity and duration of language courses for people with dementia as well as the best practice of their delivery.
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| 4. |
- Vega-Mendoza, Mariana, et al.
(author)
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Testing the Foreign Language Effect on Cognitive Reflection in Older Adults
- 2021
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In: Brain Sciences. - : MDPI. - 2076-3425. ; 11:11
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- An increasing number of people around the world communicate in more than one language, resulting in them having to make decisions in a foreign language on a daily basis. Interestingly, a burgeoning body of literature suggests that people’s decision-making is affected by whether they are reasoning in their native language (NL) or their foreign language (FL). According to the foreign language effect (FLe), people are less susceptible to bias in many decision-making tasks and more likely to display utilitarian cost-benefit analysis in moral decision-making when reasoning in a FL. While these differences have often been attributed to a reduced emotionality in the FL, an emerging body of literature has started to test the extent to which these could be attributable to increased deliberation in the FL. The present study tests whether increased deliberation leads to a FLe on cognitive reflection in a population of older adults (Mage = 65.1), from the successful aging project in Umeå, Sweden. We explored whether performance on a 6-item version of the cognitive reflection test (CRT) adapted to Swedish would differ between participants for whom Swedish was their NL and those for whom Swedish was their FL. The CRT is a task designed to elicit an incorrect, intuitive answer. In order to override the intuitive answer, one requires engaging in deliberative, analytical thinking to determine the correct answer. Therefore, we hypothesized that if thinking in a FL increases deliberation, then those performing the task in their FL would exhibit higher accuracy rates than those performing in their NL. Our results showed that age and level of education predicted performance on the task but performance on the CRT did not differ between the NL and the FL groups. In addition, in the FL group, proficiency in the FL was not related to performance in the CRT. Our results, therefore, do not provide evidence that thinking in a FL increases deliberation in a group of older adults performing a logical reasoning task that is not typically associated with an emotional connotation.
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