Final Weeks

I've been terrible about getting these last few out so I'm going to just summarize my time over hte last few weeks. After I decided upon which C&D residents I was going to study, I moved into attempting to replicate the research tests I performed on the three other residents to the best of my ability. There was a definitive difference in the reaction times of the C&D residents as opposed to the A&B residents, which is to be expected, as the gap in progression of dementia between the two halves of the residency home is noticeable. I spent some time getting to know Mo and Genevieve before running tests on them, as I did with the other residents, however their dementia had progressed to a point where memory of their past or childhood was almost nonexistent.

What I managed to get a handle on from the activities representative who works with them was that Genevieve grew up on a farm in Nebraska, and Mo grew up and lived in New Orleans. I tested the two of them using the game crazy eights. I observed that without music, Genevieve had some difficulty with handling multiple patterns at once, for instance, the fact that a card of the same suit or same number/face could be played. Usually she would either be unaware of one of the two options, or would question my move that satisfied one of those two conditions. Mo was much further limited than Genevieve, she mainly struggled with figuring out what her cards were, and would get lost in finding out that information and forget where she was. It was because of that drastic difference that led me to ask about her to one of her caretakers, who informed me she was going through a period of decline. When I probed further, she made me aware that once residents reach C&D they go through a pattern of declines and plateaus, during declines they exhibit some of the symptoms of depression, such as exhaustion and constant sleep, however they will still move to participate in activities, but will usually sit alone and nap during them. For my remaining time of study she was in a decline stage, and was thus not conducive to research.

I moved on to Genevieve after wards, and managed to run tests on her with country, Frank Sinatra, Elvis and Rock. With Frank Sinatra on, Genevieve displayed an increased frequency in remembering both sets of conditions for playable cards, as well as displaying more focus on the game. With Elvis she displayed a similar improvement, with a slightly sunnier disposition. I expected to see some kind of specific reaction to country, similar to how Tom reacted to the live performance gospel music, and how Mo reacted to eh live performance  motown music. I was surprised to find out that her reaction to country music was almost identical to her reaction to Elvis in respect to its scale. An even more surprising find was that, when I played rock music, Genevieve had noticeably faster reaction time, though it was still slower, and she was able to react emotionally and respond to my jokes and comments. This leads me to believe that her triggers with respect to music are influenced by music she hasn't hear before, or at least a genre or style that isn't familiar to her, since Elvis, Frank Sinatra, and the older country music I played as a part of these tests were commonplace at the residency home, whereas the rock music playlist I played took most of its songs from a much later time. That summarizes the research I was able to perform over the last few weeks.

Week 7

For my seventh week of interning I focused mainly on finishing my different genre experiments with Tom, as well as trying to determine which C&D residents I should run tests on over the next few weeks. I started by testing Tom with a game of crazy 8's and rock (as my testing last week was shorter than I had liked), and found that there was complete consistency with what I had observed previously. I then turned my focus to identifying some primary research candidates from C&D. To do so, I took into account what I had observed previously in live performances, which served as my best indicator without direct contact, as well as observing their morning activities. C&D have a much more active set of morning activities than A&B, consisting of beach ball volleyball, horseshoes, and the musical styling of Elvis, among other artists. In general, the residents were very active and eager to participate, two of whom especially enjoyed the activities, and reacted uniquely to the music being played, their names are Molina and Genevieve. Intrigued by my observations on C&D, as well as reading an article documenting the effects of exercise on dementia patients, I decided to observe and compare the morning activities of A&B to those of C&D. On A&B, the residents usually read from the Daily Chronicle, as well as playing games of ring toss, with music provided form the genre of  swing on the TV. The residents are primarily interested in napping during this time,  and only a few can be seen participating. It is my goal in the coming weeks to do what I can to test Molina and Genevieve in the same custom as I have tested Tom, Jeanette, and Virginia, as well as determine the reason why there are differences in participation among the residents of different sides.

Week 6

For my sixth week I continued testing different genres with the Jeanette and Virginia, as well as catching up on the genres I had not yet tested with Tom. I started with testing the genres of rock and alternative. I noticed that Jeanette seems to meld her personality to the music she listens too when we play. When I turned on rock music, for instance, she became much more irritable and short, and when I played alternative, she was much more calm than irritable. She displayed an ability to support conversation and play with these two genres of music as opposed to Elvis, and Frank Sinatra. Virginia was improved by this music than the previous genres, and appeared more distracted than soothed by it, exacerbating her forgetfulness of the game rules. I tested Tom with Elvis, rock and alternative as well. Tom seemed to remain relaxed and strategic during the games wit hall three genres, though he reacted to conversation differently during each genre. During Elvis, he responded by smiling and laughing at whatever was said. When he listened to rock, he would act out a fair bit more, responding with whatever wit he could think of. Alternative caused him to almost shelter up, resulting in little response to conversation. I plan to use my remaining weeks to study exercise and it's relevance via morning activities, and attempt to study how different genres affect the C&D residents.

Week 5

During my fifth week I sought to identify remaining controls for future testing, and also begin some genre testing on those I already had a control for. I also had a unique opportunity to try a new game with Inge and Virginia, by playing a game where each person draws a card from the center, and everyone has to answer the question printed on the card. The questions ranged from what their childhood nickname was, or something as general as what they like in a person. I found that they had much more difficulty with the specific questions about their past than the questions about what qualities they liked in people. To me, this indicates that they have much better memory or morals and social nuance than more specific events, which makes sense, considering how society constantly reinforces morality, but doesn't always remind you of nicknames.

I then moved on to forming controls for Jeanette and Inge while playing cards. Jeanette was capable of learning patterns and rules of the game, but had issues with focusing on both conversation and the game, when focusing on conversation she would stick to the same pattern, but not have any strategy or reason behind her moves. When focusing on the game she would be very distant, and wouldn't respond to most comments or talking. Inge had very similar reactions to Virginia, where she was able to develop patterns, but wasn't able to understand more than just one facet of the game, focusing on turn order meant she needed direction for what to do on her turn and vice versa.

I also played with Jeanette and Virginia with music from Frank Sinatra playing in the meantime, during which I noticed that Jeanette was able to support limited conversation alongside playing the game. Jeanette seems to have emotional changes dependent on the music playing as well, where she gets more downtrodden with slower, sadder music, and more vivacious with more upbeat melodies. Virginia had a better time with making her own decisions based on strategies with musical involvement, but didn't show any major signs of improvement.

During live performances, I observed that Virginia will sing along under her breath, but isn't confident enough to sing audibly. I say this is a lack of confidence because when she is asked to play the piano, she usually declines because she believes that age has made her unimpressive, and she is afraid of being embarrassed by her dulled musical edge, regardless of how likely she is to be embarrassed. I plan on observing other residents who have specific reactions to the different performances, and exemplify different facets of memory loss, and use them as auxiliaries to the residents I am running a more scientific evaluation of. I plan to continue testing my focused residents with different genres later on in my internship.

Week 4

This week I tried to establish an experimental control for each resident I plan to test. I started with Mildred, as she was the most eager of the residents to do any kind of activity. Mildred without music has a lack in multitasking, as she is unable to play cards correctly without forgetting the rules of the game and support conversation or even banter mid game. I also was able to spend a small amount of time with her using music, where I noticed she was able to understand what was being said to her, and respond emotionally through laughing, smiling, etc, but was unable to actually respond and play at the same time. Unfortunately, Mildred was moved to another facility by her family, so  I will be unable to do any further research on her, and will mainly have to draw from what  I already have.

I moved on to Tom after that, where  I sat in on a sing along session, and played cards with him, observing that the music almost distracted him, as he would try to sing along to what he knew, and lost track of what was going on with the game at hand. Tom without music is able to keep up with the pace of the game, and strategize on how to win as opposed to just going through the motions. He can run into problems with faster paced games that he wasn't used to playing (like checkers).

I then worked at finding one for Virginia. When she and I played cards she was fairly unable to make a strategy or remember the patterns of drawing and discarding, requiring a constant reminder of what she needed to do next. Through this interaction I discovered that she has a very heavy amount of loss when forming new memories, lacking pattern recognition. She also displays a lack of ability to form new memories, as the rules, although they were explained to her multiple times, were unable to stick to her.

I was not able to gather data for Jeanette and Inge, which will be the main focus of the coming week at the residency home. I will also be experimenting with the other residents I have already identified a control for, starting with music from their respective time periods or cultures growing up. I still have yet to determine what causes Virginia's amnesiac incidents, and will be working to find what the cause of them may be.

Weeks 2&3

I decided to combine the efforts of the last two weeks into one post, as there was a continuity between them as they were both meant to reach the same goal of creating a profile for each of the residents I have chosen to study, identifying how their memory loss triggers, and what reactions they have to specific types of music or genres performed in different ways.

Mildred: Mildred is who I consider to be the highest functioning resident that I have worked with, and at first it was incredibly difficult for me to identify where her memory loss existed. During conversation, it seems as though she is just a normal old lady. However, when playing games of cards, I noticed that her memory loss was triggered by critical thinking, as she was unable to remember the rules of the game after switching from a solitaire styled game to something similar to a high card draw. She was constantly reverting back to solitaire throughout the second game, until we switched back to the original game. Mildred has problems with critical thinking and memory, rather than simply general retention, so I aim to design retention tests involving that kind of critical thinking. 

Tom: Tom is the next most functioning of the residents I'm researching, with strong conversation skills, but a much weaker memory of conversation itself. Tom's memory loss is triggered by the conversation or events moving too fast, such as when his wife and I were talking about his life and career, he was barely able to keep up, and was getting hung up on the fact that his wife said he could get an ice cream cone after going to his checkup. However, when I talked to him about his career again, at his pace, he was able to tell me exactly what he did and where he went without ever once getting hung up. I plan to design experiments with Tom and fast moving events, like the card game war, or talking with him at a different pace. 

Jeanette: Jeanette's profile is much more apparent than the previous two (which will be a consistent trend with the remaining residents). Jeanette has forgotten what her current living situation is, as she believes, at different times, that she is visiting a restaurant, staying in a hotel, and at a mall. She expresses her memory loss through these stories she concocts about where she is and why she is there, an instance of which was when she was experiencing arm pain, she crafted a story about how another resident, sometimes standing or in a wheelchair, hit her with a metal pipe. Since Jeanette's memory loss has little effort to reveal, I hope to design retention tests around music and talking, seeing how her stories become more or less consistent in musical environments, or by playing games of cards or bingo. 

Virginia: Virginia is a strange mixture of conscious that she is in a group home, but not exactly why. She believes she is there because she is about 90, and can tie all of her memory, walking, and staying awake issues to that. However, she also has moments of near total amnesia, where she will be wondering around without her walker, and completely forget where she is, where she is going, or anything related to her situation. As it seems that her main memory loss symptoms are triggered by something I have yet to determine, I will be designing simple experiments making use of music and card games to determine if there is any latent memory loss, and try to divulge what causes her amnesic episodes. 

As I was observing live performances over the last few weeks, I would like to log in a few of the more overt reactions, which Tom tends to be the largest proponent of, singing along constantly throughout the performances. Jeanette will sing along as well, but not on the same scale as Tom, and she is more interested in the performers than the performance. Mildred will sing along quietly to herself, but will make no outgoing and audible singing. Virginia mostly nods along and taps her foot, etc. I have also noticed that one of the lower functioning residents, Mo, has some fairly overt reactions to specific types of music, mainly blues and New Orleans inspired songs, so I'll be looking into her over the course of the next week.

Week 1

During my first week of interning I sought to identify a few residents that I could derive research from, and I've come up with a few names:

 Jeanette: Jeanette grew up in Chicago and moved to Arizona a while ago. She has a very strong personality, with very strong opinions, and can be easily aggravated by the other residents. Jeanette is a higher functioning resident, who retains reason and logic, but has very little context for her condition. She seems to think that her being at the residency home is not unlike a hotel, where she'll constantly be discussing how she's waiting to be taken home. Jeanette seems to have a lack of short term memory, where she won't remember my age or name, but she will spin stories about who I am without any suggestions on my part. She seems to react very passionately to the live performances and sings along to the lyrics.

Tom: I am not totally sure of Tom's past, because he is much harder to support conversation with. Tom will respond in either yes or no with a sentence or head motion, with limited ability to support a prolonged conversation. Tom can talk back and forth, but once  a conversation between people around him starts moving, he'll get hung up on a point of interest, and be unable to contribute actively afterward. For instance, when his wife came to visit at the same time as me, the three of us began talking about how Tom was going to go in to a doctor for a checkup later that day. She said Tom may get some ice cream after they went, and as the conversation moved to different topics , Tom would always reiterate that point of getting ice cream. I imagine that Tom lacks short term memory during a process of critical thinking, and I aim to test that portion later on.

Mildred: Mildred is originally from a farm in Wyoming. She grew up with some siblings but has so far been more focused on present than past. She seems to have developed an antisocial personality as a result of her memory loss, as she has devoted most of her time to her dog Bonita. She seems t mirror some of the traits of social recluses, where she'll mainly stay in her room outside of meals and live performances. She has issues initiating conversation, but outside of that her memory loss symptoms are less apparent than the others', so it will likely take more time to identify what they are.

Virginia: Grew up in North Carolina with three sisters, and has three daughters. Her daughters come to see her, butt live far enough away that it is not often. Virginia seems to lack both short term and long term memory, as I needed the caretakers to tell me details about her family and past that she could not remember. She doesn't hold interest easily, and will often doze off during group conversation. So far that is all I know regarding her, and as a result I will be researching her morein the future.

Inge: Was a German immigrant, given her age I wonder if she left during the time period of the Nazi regime or shortly after, but the memories of that time seem troubling to her, so I'm cautious to push any farther forward. She has a son and a daughter, and is very proud of them. She seems to have a unique reaction to a lack of memory, where she both laughs and cries, indicating that she has knowledge of her lack of memory but also is disappointed in herself. She seems to have both a lack of long term and short term memory, but retains her ability to think logically and support conversation.

I'll be on the lookout for any others who would yield interesting research, but this core group seems to be a good starting point.