In collaboration with Payame Noor University and Iranian Health Psychology Association

Document Type : Scientific Research

Author

Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics and Foreign Languages, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Objective: Discourse disorders of elderly people with Alzheimer’s disease affect their ability to communicate and participate in social interaction. This research compares descriptive discourse among elderlies with Alzheimer’s disease and healthy elderlies. Methods: The method applied in the present study is ex post facto. Patients with Alzheimer’s disease and the healthy elderlies of Tehran made the research population. To control the effective variables, 20 patients were matched with 22 healthy elderlies on the basis of age, education, gender, and being monolingual or bilingual. Different assessments were done for discourse analysis. U Man Whitney Test was used to analyze the data. Findings: Patients with Alzheimer’s disease, performed weaker than the healthy aged control group in four measures that derived from discourse, which consist of false concepts (p=0.001), endless utterances (P>0.001), false conjunctions (P=0.007), and true conjunctions (P=0.031). Conclusion: Results indicate that discourse of elderlies with Alzheimer’s disease was impaired in structure and content. Increase of false concepts, endless utterances, and false conjunctions, with decline of true conjunctions result in clinical discourse disorder in Alzheimer’s disease.

Keywords

Abrams, L. & Farrell, M. (2009). Language Processing in Normal Aging. Florida: Florida University Press.
Backman, L.; Small, B.J. & Wahlin, A. (2001)." Aging and Memory: Cognitive and Biological Perspectives." In J.E. Birren & K.W. Schai (Eds.), Handbook of the Psychology of Aging (5th ed., pp. 349-377). San Diego: Academic Press.
Baddeley, A.D. (1986). Working Memory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Brandao, L.; De Mattos, M.A. & Parente, P. (2009). "Narrative Production of Older Adults: Investigating a Possible Pragmatic Change." International Journal of Psychology. 43(1):162-169.
Bucks, R.S. et al. (2000). "Analysis of Spontaneous, Conversational Speech in Dementia of Alzheimer's Type: Evaluation of an Objective Technique for Analyzing Lexical Performance." Aphasiology, 14.
Chapman, S.B.; Peterson, H.A. & Thompson, J.L. (1998). "Discourse in Fluent Aphasia and Alzheimer’s Disease: Linguistic and Pragmatic Considerations." Journal of Neurolinguistics. 11 (1-2):55-78.
Cohen, G.(1993). "Memory and Aging." In G.M. Davies & R.H. Logie (Eds.), Memory in Everyday Life (pp. 419-446). Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Cohen, G.; Conway, M.A. & Maylor, E.A. (1994). "Flashbulb Memories in Older Adults." Psychology and Aging, 9, 454-463.
Craik, F.I.M. (1990). "Changes in Memory with Normal Aging." In B.H. Challis & B.M. Velichkovsky (Eds.), Stratification in Cognition and Consciousness (pp. 79-104). Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
 Craik, F.I.M. (2006). "Age-related Changes in Human Memory: Practical Consequences." In L.G. Nilsson & N. Ohta (Eds.), Memory and Society: Psychological Perspectives(pp. 175-191). NY: Psychology Press.
Crystal, D. (2001). "Clinical Linguistics." In M. Aronoff and J. Rees-miller (Ed.), The Blackwell Handbook of Linguistics (pp. 673-682). Oxford: Blackwell.
 Crystal, D. (2003). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. (5thed.). UK: Blackwell.
Dijkstra, K.; Bourgeois, M.S.; Allen, R.S. & Burgio, L.D. (2004). "Conversational Coherence, Discourse Analysis of Older Adults with and without Dementia." Journal of Neurolinguistics,17: 263-283.
Dixon, R.A. & Cohen, A.L. (2003). "Cognitive Development in Adulthood." In R.M. Lerner, M.A. Easterbrooks, & J. Mistry (Eds.), Handbook of Psychology (Vol. 6, pp. 443-461). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Farrimond, S.; Knight, R.G. & Titov, N. (2006). "The Effects of Aging on Remembering Intentions: Performance on a Simulated Shopping Task." Applied Cognitive Psychology, 20, 533-555.
Ehrlich, J.S.; Olber, L.K. & Clark, L. (1997). "Ideational and Semantic Contribution to Narrative Production in Adults with Dementia of the Alzheimer’s Type." Journal of Communication Disorders, 30:79-99.
Glosser, G. & Deser, T. (1990). "Patterns of Discourse Production among Neurological Patients with Fluent Language Disorders." Brain and Language, 40: 67-88.
Groves-Wright, K; Neil-Strunjas, J; Burnet, R. & ONeill, M.J. (2004). "A Comparison of Verbal and Written Language in Alzheimer’s Disease." Journal of Communication Disorders, 37:109-130.
Halliday, M.A.K. & Hasan, R. (1976), Cohesion in English. London: Longman.
Hamilton, D.L. (1996). Psychology of Aging. London: Psychology Press.
Khoddam, A.; Noroozian, M. & Seyyedian, M. (1386). "Comparison of the Linguistic Properties in Normal Elderly People and Elderly People with Alzheimer's Disease." In Abstracts Book of Iran's 3rd Congress of Neuropsychology. Tehran: Tarbiyat Moallem University.
Khoddam, A. (1387). "Study of the Effect of Group Speech Therapy on the Naming Abilities of People with Alzheimer's Disease." In Abstracts Book of Iran's 9th Congress of Speech Therapy. Tehran: University of Medical Science and Hygiene and Therapy Services.
Laine, M; Laakso, M; Vuorinen, E. & Rinne, J. (1998). "Coherence and Informativeness of Discourse in Two Dementia Types." Journal of Neurolinguistics, 11(1-2):29-87.
Light, L. (2011). "Memory and Aging: 4 Hypotheses in Search of Data." Annual Review Psychology. Annual Reviews Inc.
Little, D.M.; Prentice, K.J. & Wingfield, A. (2004). "Adult Age Differences in Judgments of Semantic Fit."Applied Psycholinguistics, 25, 135-142.
MacDonald, M.C. & Christiansen, M.H. (2002). "Reassessing Working Memory: Comment on Just and Carpenter (1992) and Waters and Caplan (1996)." Psychological Review, 109 (1): 35-54.
March, E.G.; Wales, R. & Pattison, P. (2006). "The Uses of Nouns and Deixis in Discourse Production in Alzheimer’s Disease." Journal of Neurolinguistics, 19:311-340.
Matlin, M.W. (2009). Cognitive Psychology. (7thed.). Asia: Wiley.
Moulin,C.J.A. et al. (2007). "Eyewitness Memory in Older Adults." In M.P. Toglia, J.D. Read, D.F. Ross, and R.C.L. Lindsay (Eds.), Handbook of Eyewitness Psychology, (Vol. 1, pp. 627-646). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Mufson, E.J. et al. (2012). "Mild Cognitive Impairment: Pathology and Mechanisms." Acta Neuropathologica, 123 (1): pp. 13-35.
Park, D.C. et al. (1999). "Medication Adherence in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients: Older is Wiser." Journal of the American Geriatric Society, 47: 172-183.
Park, D.C.& Hedden, T. (2001)."Working Memory and Aging." In M. Naveh-Benjamin, M. Moscovitch, and H.L. Roediger, III (Eds.), Perspectives on Human Memory and Cognitive Aging: Essays in Honour of Fergus Craik (pp. 148-169). NY: Psychology Press.
Salthouse, T.A. (1991), Theoretical Perspectives on Cognitive Aging. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Ska, B.; Scherer L.C.; Flores, O.C.; De Oliveira, C.R.; Netto, T.M. & Fonseca, R.P. (2009). "Theoretical, Behavioral and Neuro-image Evidence on Discourse Processing in Aging."  Journal of Psychology & Neuroscience, 2(2):101-109.
Statistical Yearbook of Islamic Republic of Iran (1375). Tehran: Statistical Center of Iran.
Statistical Yearbook of Islamic Republic of Iran (1385). Tehran: Statistical Center of Iran.
Ulatowska, H. & Chapman, S. (1995). "Discourse Studies." In R. Lubinski (Ed.), Dementia and communication (pp.115-132). San Diego, CA: Singular Publishing Group.
Van Dijk, T.A. (1989). Text and Context: Explorations in the Semantics and Pragmatics of Discourse Analysis. London.
Whitbourne, S.K. (2008). Adult Development and Aging: Biopsychosocial Perspectives (3rded.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Yule, G. (2006), The Study of Language. (3rd ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zacks, R.T. & Hasher, L. (2006). "Aging and Long-term Memory: Deficits Are not Inevitable." In E. Bialystok and F.I.M. Craik (Eds.), Lifespan Cognition: Mechanism of Change (pp. 162-177), NY: Oxford University Press.