Judith L. Roberts

Subjective Memory Complaints and Awareness of Memory Functioning in Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review

Objectives: Subjective memory complaint (SMC) is central to the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). People with MCI are at a higher risk of progressing to dementia, and research on SMC is contradictory in terms of the accuracy of SMC and its predictive role for future dementia. One possible reason for these contradictory findings is that the level of awareness of memory function may vary among people with MCI. This review examines whether the level of awareness of memory functioning varies amongst people classified as having MCI and whether there is support for the suggestion that the level of awareness in MCI predicts future progression to dementia. Method: Sixteen studies were identified which evaluate the awareness level in people classified as having MCI in either a clinical or research setting. In addition to the outcome of each study, the conceptualization of awareness, ‘object’ of awareness and methodology were also considered. Results: There is evidence to show that the level of awareness in MCI does vary, and this may have implications for future progression to dementia. Conclusions: Given the increased risk of progression to dementia for those identified as having MCI, the role of awareness should be explored further with due consideration given to the conceptualisation of awareness and the methodology employed. The finding of variability in awareness has implications for the use of SMC in the diagnostic criteria for MCI.

The influence of psychological, social and contextual factors on the expression and measurement of awareness in early-stage dementia: testing a biopsychosocial model

Insufficient attention has been paid to the influence of psychological and social factors on discrepancy‐based measures of awareness.

What contributes to a good quality of life in early dementia? Awareness and the QoL-AD: a cross-sectional study.

BackgroundSelf-report quality of life (QoL) measures for people with dementia are widely used as outcome measures in trials of dementia care interventions. Depressed mood, relationship quality and neuropsychiatric symptoms predict scores on these measures, whereas cognitive impairment and functional abilities typically do not. This study examines whether these self-reports are influenced by personality and by the person’s awareness of his/her impairments. A strong negative association between QoL and awareness of deficits would have implications for the validity of self-report in this context and for therapeutic interventions aiming to increase adjustment and coping.MethodsParticipants were 101 individuals with early‒stage dementia and their family carers participating in the Memory Impairment and Dementia Awareness (MIDAS) Study. QoL was assessed using the QoL-AD scale, and awareness was assessed in relation to memory, activities of daily living and social functioning. Self-concept, conscientiousness, quality of relationship and mood were assessed and a brief neuropsychological battery administered. Carers rated their own stress and well-being and reported on neuropsychiatric symptoms. A series of regression analyses predicting QoL-AD were carried out, identifying key variables in each domain of assessment to take forward to an overall model.ResultsCognitive impairment was not related to QoL. The final model accounted for 57% of the variance in QoL-AD scores, with significant contributions from depressed mood, severity of irritability shown by the person with dementia, self-concept, quality of relationship (rated by the person with dementia) and male gender. The bivariate relationships of QoL-AD with awareness of memory function, awareness of functional abilities and conscientiousness were mediated by both depressed mood and self-concept.ConclusionsThis study reports the most comprehensive approach to evaluation of awareness to date. Most of the indices of awareness used are not related to self-reported QoL. Discrepancies in evaluative judgements of memory function and functional abilities between people with dementia and carers are related to QoL, but this relationship is mediated by both depressed mood and self-concept, which have a much stronger relationship with QoL. The validity of self-report measures of QoL in people with early stage dementia is supported by these results.

Dissociation between implicit and explicit manifestations of awareness in early stage dementia: evidence from the emotional Stroop effect for dementia-related words

To determine whether people with dementia (PwD), and carers of PwD, show a processing bias to dementia‐related words in an emotional Stroop task, and if so, whether the presence of such a bias is related to level of explicit awareness of the condition.

Meta-representational awareness in mild cognitive impairment: An interpretative phenomenological analysis

Awareness in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has been studied primarily from a quantitative perspective, which has yielded inconclusive results. A qualitative approach may provide a more in-depth profile of awareness of symptoms and changes among people living with MCI. Few qualitative studies have considered awareness in MCI; therefore, the focus here will be on the experience of living with MCI, and particularly on the psychological impact of living with memory difficulties and how these impact on daily life. Twenty five participants with a clinical diagnosis of MCI who had been informed of their diagnosis were interviewed. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyse interview transcripts. Four higher order themes were identified. An exploratory model is proposed with a dominant theme of ‘Fear and uncertainty’; this underpins ‘Interdependence’, ‘Life goes on as normal’ and ‘Disavowal of difficulty’ which are representative of coping responses resulting from appraisal of memory and cognitive difficulties. Participants did not use the term ‘MCI’, suggesting that this term had little meaning for them; nevertheless, there was a wish for a definitive explanation of the difficulties. The themes elicited from participant accounts indicate that the symptoms of MCI are perceived as a threat to psychological well-being which results in context-specific appraisal of the symptoms of MCI.

Contributions of frontal and medial temporal lobe functioning to the errorless learning advantage

Among individuals with episodic memory impairments, trial-and-error learning is less successful than when errors are avoided. This “errorless learning advantage” has been replicated numerous times, but its neurocognitive mechanism is uncertain, with existing evidence pointing to both medial temporal lobe (MTL) and frontal lobe (FL) involvement. To test the relative contribution of MTL and FL functioning to the errorless learning advantage, 51 healthy older adults were pre-experimentally assigned to one of four groups based on their neuropsychological test performance: Low MTL-Low FL, Low MTL-High FL, High MTL-Low FL, High MTL-High FL. Participants learned two word lists under errorless learning conditions, and two word lists under errorful learning conditions, and memory was tested via free recall, cued recall, and source recognition. Performance on all three tests was better for those with High relative to Low MTL functioning. An errorless learning advantage was found in free and cued recall, in cued recall marginally more so for those with Low than High MTL functioning. Participants with Low MTL functioning were also more likely to misclassify learning errors as target words. Overall, these results are consistent with a MTL locus of the errorless learning advantage. The results are discussed in terms of the multi-componential nature of neuropsychological tests and the impact of demographic and mood variables on cognitive functioning.

The benefits of errorless learning for people with amnestic mild cognitive impairment

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to explore whether errorless learning leads to better outcomes than errorful learning in people with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and to examine whether accuracy in error recognition relates to any observed benefit of errorless over errorful learning. Nineteen participants with a clinical diagnosis of amnestic MCI were recruited. A word-list learning task was used and learning was assessed by free recall, cued recall and recognition tasks. Errorless learning was significantly superior to errorful learning for both free recall and cued recall. The benefits of errorless learning were less marked in participants with better error recognition ability. Errorless learning methods are likely to prove more effective than errorful methods for those people with MCI whose ability to monitor and detect their own errors is impaired.