Effect of Written Stimuli in Memory Posters on Conversations of Persons with Dementia
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Date
2010-06
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine whether memory posters would help a person with dementia to retrieve long-term memories and improve the length and meaningfulness of conversations. Two types of Memory posters were compared (1. posters with photographs alone; 2. posters with photographs + captions) with a conversational condition without memory posters. There were two research questions asked: Will the memory posters help increase the length and meaningfulness of conversations of persons with dementia? Will captions underneath the photographs on the memory posters help increase the length and meaningfulness of conversations of persons with dementia? Six persons with dementia participated in 3 conversational sessions during which the three 5-minute poster and no poster conditions were presented in a counterbalanced order separated by 5-10 minute distracter activities. The results indicated that the poster conditions did not increase the length or meaningfulness of conversations when compared to the no poster condition. Differences in individual participants’ cognitive status and verbal output may be related to these results. The characteristics of visual stimuli designed to enhance memory and conversation need to be matched to the individual needs and abilities of the participants.
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Keywords
Dementia, Memory Posters, Conversation Length, Conversation Meaningfulness