What is it about?
As people get older, their ability to remember and retell a story might decline. But when does this become a sign of more serious memory problems? This study looks at how well older adults can remember and retell a story of a workplace conflict between two characters. It uses advanced computer programs and analysis to determine whether difficulties with story recall are just part of normal aging, or if they might be early signs of cognitive impairment.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
Adults who have trouble with memory and language are at a higher risk of developing dementia. Remembering and retelling a story is a simple and easy task that can be administered in the clinic to measure these two cognitive abilities. By examining how healthy older adults perform this task, we discovered valuable insights into their cognitive abilities. Our findings indicate that discourse tasks with story recall can effectively screen for signs of cognitive impairment in aging adults using a simple and intuitive criterion.
Perspectives
Like a well-told story that unravels over time, our memories and the way we weave them into speech can reveal hidden signs of cognitive decline. In the clinic, I’ve seen how the simple act of retelling a story can provide early hints of cognitive impairment. This study affirms that story telling is a viable marker of cognitive health in the aging population.
Roger Newman-Norlund
University of South Carolina
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Story Recall in Peer Conflict Resolution Discourse Task to Identify Older Adults Testing Within Range of Cognitive Impairment, American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, August 2024, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA),
DOI: 10.1044/2024_ajslp-24-00005.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
