| dc.description.abstract | Dementia of the Alzheimer Type (DAT) is a degenerative, terminal illness that has a
devastating effect not only on the individual, but also on their family and friends.
Current research seems to indicate that neuropsychological tests of semantic memory
through object naming can be helpful in identifying those who are entering the early
stages of the disease, although it is unclear whether semantic memory disintegrates or
if access routes are disrupted. Few studies provide comparisons between visual and
tactile object identification skills in OAT patients. Little research exists comparing
the performances of healthy adult controls to DAT patients, and even fewer studies
investigate the utility of a nonverbal modality of response. In order to investigate
these three areas, the performance of 18 patients with DAT was compared to the
performance of 21 healthy adults aged 60 and over on several tasks. A set of
household objects was presented one at a time for all participants to identify visually
or by touch. Control and experimental participants tried to name these objects as
quickly as possible, and the number of correct recognitions were compared. Results
indicated that if patients were unable to state the name of the object they were
attempting to identify they benefitted from having a selection of possible names to
choose from, indicating that semantic information remains. Partipants also tended to
respond verbally, even when given the choice of responding nonverbally. Finally,
results indicated that the DAT patients performed significantly poorer overall on
tactile and visual object identification compared to controls. | en_US |
