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.