Association for Behavior Analysis International

Behavioral Gerontology research continues to expand our understanding of how older adults with dementia learn and respond to environmental contingencies. Over the past decade, this research has expanded to preference assessments, reinforcer assessments, and the possibility to impact both activity engagement as well as learning (both relearning existing information, as well as learning new information). This symposium will include three such demonstrations. One study evaluated the stability of preference among older adults with dementia, looking at preference over a six-month period of time. Another study evaluated using Skinner's Analysis of Verbal Behavior and teaching Mand repertoires to older adults with dementia, including an evaluation of the role of motivating operations, preference assessment, and contingency specifying stimuli. The final study used spaced retrieval to evaluate recall of items over increasing periods of time among older adults with dementia, looking at recall within session and across days using single subject design. The implications of these studies and the future directions for behavioral gerontology research will be discussed.

Individuals with dementia gradually decline in activity engagement as the cognitive impairment progresses, which may occur due to difficulties initiating leisure activities independently, communicating needs, and caregivers may not be accurate in predicting activity preference. To address these difficulties, preference assessments (PA) have been effectively used to determine likes and dislikes among this population. This study examined the utility of PA as a strategy to identify preferred leisure activities and assessed the stability of preferences over time (i.e., one and six months after the initial assessment) in eight older adults in a memory care setting. Initial assessment data have been collected for all participants, and two participants have completed the initial plus one month assessments, and assessments have been scheduled for the remaining participants. Results to date: Participant 1 Jill has demonstrated stability between the initial and one month assessment (r = 0.83, p < 0.042) (Figure 1). No stability was found in Participant 2 Marys preferences (r = 0.143, p > 0.787) (Figure 2). Results suggest that the stability of preferences varies across individuals. Clinical implications of these findings and recommendations for the frequency of administered PA in this population will be discussed.

Spaced retrieval (SR) is a well-developed memory enhancement intervention for older adults with cognitive impairment. Information is presented over increasing or decreasing time intervals depending upon participant performance under the guise of a social visit. In previous research, SR has been used to target name-face associations for family members and staff (Cherry, Hawley, Jackson, & Boudreaux, 2009; Cherry, Walvoord, & Hawley, 2010; Haslam et al., 2011; Hawley & Cherry, 2004), naming of objects (Cherry et al., 1999; Cherry & Simmons-DGerolamo, 2005; Hochhalter, Bakke, Holub, & Overmier, 2004), and use of external memory aids (Bourgeois, 2003; Camp et al., 1996; Ozgis, Rendell, & Henry, 2009). The current study sought to extend previous research by training a 79-year-old woman with memory impairment to recall clinically relevant stimuli using SR within a multiple probe design across three stimulus sets. The participant was able to increase recall within and across stimuli for the first stimulus set (orientation to time), increase recall within session for the second stimulus set (orientation to place), yet struggled to recall the third set of stimuli within or across trials (daily functioning/well-being). Implications for targeting multiple stimuli during psychotropic medication changes for an older adult with memory deficits are discussed.