A Normative Study of the Digit Span in an Educationally Diverse Elderly Population

Abstract

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to explore the effect of demographic variables on Digit Span test (DS) performance in an educationally diverse elderly population and to provide normative information.MethodsThe DS was administered to 784 community-dwelling volunteers aged 60-90 years with an educational history of from zero to 25 years of full-time education. People with serious neurological, medical and psychiatric disorders (including dementia) were excluded.ResultsAge, education and gender were found to be significantly associated with performance on the DS. Based on the results obtained, DS norms were stratified by age (2 strata), education (3 strata), and gender (2 strata).ConclusionOur results on DS performance suggest that both attention and working memory are influenced by age, education and gender. The present study provides reasonably comprehensive normative information on the DS for an educationally diverse elderly population.

Dark chocolate administration improves working memory in students

“…(9) The DST consists of a sequence of digits that must be memorized and verbally repeated by the test subject. DST results are consistently good in normal elderly, (10) in elderly with cognitive dysfunction, (11) and also in children. (12) The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of administration of dark and white chocolate on working memory in students, and differs from previous studies in the use of a parallel group design.…”

Kesan Penuaan ke atas Kehubungan Berkesan Otak semasa Pemprosesan Ingatan Bekerja daripada Perspektif Pemodelan Sebab dan Akibat Dinamik

“…Perubahan sebegini menyebabkan kemerosotan pemprosesan kognitif. Kesannya, prestasi kognitif individu berusia seperti pemprosesan penumpuan, auditori dan ingatan bekerja merosot (Choi et al 2014). Walau bagaimanapun, kesan penuaan ini dipercayai tidak berlaku secara seragam.…”

“…Tugasan BRT ini telah digunakan secara meluas untuk menilai fungsi pemprosesan kognitif subjek normal (Bayliss et al 2003;Choi et al 2014;Heilbronner et al 1991;Ting et al 2014) dan tidak normal seperti dementia (Ting et al 2014) dan afasia (Ivanova & Hallowell 2014). Tugasan BRT melibatkan: gegelung fonologi, iaitu proses menyimpan maklumat lisan; proses memanipulasi maklumat; dan fungsi eksekutif pusat (Baddeley 2000).…”

“…Selain itu, kajian terdahulu juga turut melaporkan bahawa hemisfera kiri dan kanan otak menunjukkan kemerosotan pada kadar yang berbeza (Cabeza et al 2003) dan hemisfera kanan menunjukkan pengurangan pengaktifan dan kehubungan yang kurang kompleks berbanding hemisfera kiri (Dolcos et al 2002). Disebabkan oleh kepelbagaian keputusan kajian terdahulu serta variasi tugasan yang digunakan (Choi et al 2014;Harding et al 2015;Ting et al 2014), adalah penting untuk kajian ini memfokus kepada kesan penuaan ke atas subjek Melayu dengan menggunakan tugasan BRT. Kajian ini adalah kajian keratan rentas yang dilakukan ke atas empat kumpulan subjek berusia antara 20 hingga 65 tahun. Kajian ini berlainan dengan kajian terdahulu (St Jacques et al 2012;Wilckens et al 2012) yang hanya membandingkan dua peringkat umur iaitu kumpulan muda dan kumpulan berusia.…”

Neuropsychological Predictors of Conversion to Dementia and Cognitive Trajectory of Older Adults With Mild Cognitive Impairment in a Two-Year Follow-Up Study

“…In the Digits Forward subtest, the participant must repeat the numbers said by the examiner in the same order. In the Digits Backward subtest, the patient must repeat the same numbers in reversed order (Nitrini et al, 2005;Choi et al, 2014).…”