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.