When and how did you go wrong? Characterizing mild functional difficulties in older adults during an everyday task

Divers, Ross; Ham, Lillian; Matchanova, Anastasia; Hackett, Katherine; Mis, Rachel; Howard, Kia; Rycroft, Sarah Seligman; Roll, Emily; Giovannetti, Tania

doi:10.1080/13825585.2020.1756210

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…It may also be important to investigate the latency of error awareness on everyday task performance. A prior study (Divers et al, 2021) with HOA found that slowed error monitoring and decay of task goals influenced micro-error production (i.e., subtle performance inefficiencies) during performance of a clinic-based naturalistic task (i.e., Lunch task from Naturalistic Action Test; Schwartz et al, 2002).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Error monitoring in amnestic mild cognitive impairment: Cognitive correlates and relationship to measures of everyday function.

Pagán¹,

Arrotta²,

Chilton³

et al. 2023

Neuropsychology

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Objective: Accurate error monitoring is important for successful completion of everyday tasks and compensatory strategy use. This study examined how error awareness is impacted in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) compared to cognitively healthy older adults (HOA). Cognitive correlates of error monitoring and relation to objective and self-reported measurement of everyday function were also evaluated. Method: Twenty-four individuals with aMCI and 24 cognitively HOAs completed standardized cognitive measures (domains: attention, working memory, executive functioning, memory, language, visuospatial abilities); a computerized go-no-go paradigm task that evaluated error monitoring; a naturalistic, performance-based measure of everyday functioning (day-out-task; DOT); and self- and informant-report measures of everyday dysexecutive difficulties (DEX). Results: Participants with aMCI demonstrated significantly poorer error monitoring as compared to the HOA group (Cohen’s d = 1.02). Working memory and executive functioning were significantly related to error monitoring for both groups. After accounting for age and global cognitive status, hierarchical regressions revealed error monitoring significantly predicted DOT total time (but not accuracy) as well as both self- and informant-report DEX scores. Conclusions: Compared to HOAs, individuals with aMCI exhibited poorer conscious error awareness. Better error monitoring was associated with higher working memory and executive functioning abilities and predicted better everyday functioning. If individuals with aMCI experience difficulties recognizing performance inaccuracies, they will be unable to correct their errors, leading to mistakes in everyday task completion and difficulty implementing appropriate compensatory strategies. Findings suggest that error monitoring may be a potential target for intervention with individuals with aMCI.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Error monitoring in amnestic mild cognitive impairment: Cognitive correlates and relationship to measures of everyday function.

Pagán¹,

Arrotta²,

Chilton³

et al. 2023

Neuropsychology

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“…Compared with younger adults, and after controlling for total microerrors, cognitively healthy older adults made more microerrors to off-task distractor objects and between task subgoals (i.e., when deliberate control is required to switch from one subgoal to another). There was no reliable difference in microerrors over time (Divers et al, 2020). In sum, these new studies show that microerrors may be reliably coded and classified, and although preliminary, results to date suggest that mild (micro) errors in healthy adults may be largely explained by faulty control mechanisms as opposed to weak goals.…”

Section: Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…By expanding performance analysis, investigators could use the exact same tasks for participants across the entire severity spectrum, from healthy cognition to moderate/severe impairment (i.e., dementia). For example, a taxonomy of subtle inefficiencies or microerrors has been proposed to characterize mild action difficulties using relatively straightforward multiple objects tests, such as the Naturalistic Action Test (Divers et al, 2020; Hirose, 2007; Rycroft et al, 2018; Seligman et al, 2014). Microerrors involve reaching toward, touching, or lifting and moving an object that is not needed for the task/subtask at hand, particularly when participants are explicitly instructed to be precise in their movements and not touch or move objects until they are ready to use them (Rycroft et al, 2018; Seligman et al, 2014).…”

Section: Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a recent study, our research group described a method of classifying different categories of microerrors that correspond to features of the goal-control model (Divers et al, 2020). To identify subtle action errors that may be attributable to weak goals caused by premature decay, we differentiated microerrors that occurred during performance of later task steps versus microerrors that occurred during performance of initial task steps when task goals were relatively stronger.…”

Section: Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The goal-control model: An integrated neuropsychological framework to explain impaired performance of everyday activities.

Giovannetti¹,

Mis²,

Hackett³

et al. 2021

Neuropsychology

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Objective: This review describes the relatively small body of neuropsychological and cognitive research conducted over the past 100 years focused on theoretical models explaining the neurocognitive processes that support everyday functioning and the breakdown of functional abilities in the face of neurological damage or disease. Method: The historical roots of the theories of everyday activities based on direct observation of behavior in neurology and diary reports of everyday errors in cognitive psychology are presented, followed by a review of the empirical findings and resulting theoretical conceptualizations from case studies and group studies of various clinical populations in neuropsychology. Results: We conclude with a new framework (the goal-control model) that integrates the most recent empirical findings in neuropsychology with mechanisms proposed by cognitive models. Conclusions: The goal-control model offers empirically supported solutions to understanding and predicting functioning in the real world. This new model generates testable predictions for future research and provides guidance for clinical assessment and interventions.

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Caught in the ACTS: Defining Abstract Cognitive Task Sequences as an Independent Process

Desrochers

Ahuja

Maechler

et al. 2022

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

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Cognitive neuroscience currently conflates the study of serial responses (e.g., delay match to sample/nonsample, n-back) with the study of sequential operations. In this essay, our goal is to define and disentangle the latter, termed abstract cognitive task sequences (ACTS). Existing literatures address tasks requiring serial events, including procedural learning of implicit motor responses, statistical learning of predictive relationships, and judgments of attributes. These findings do not describe the behavior and underlying mechanism required to succeed at remembering to evaluate color, then shape; or to multiply, then add. A new literature is needed to characterize these sorts of second-order cognitive demands of studying a sequence of operations. Our second goal is to characterize gaps in knowledge related to ACTS that merit further investigation. In the following sections, we define more precisely what we mean by ACTS and suggest research questions' further investigation would be positioned to address.

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When and how did you go wrong? Characterizing mild functional difficulties in older adults during an everyday task

Cited by 3 publications

References 46 publications

Error monitoring in amnestic mild cognitive impairment: Cognitive correlates and relationship to measures of everyday function.

Error monitoring in amnestic mild cognitive impairment: Cognitive correlates and relationship to measures of everyday function.

The goal-control model: An integrated neuropsychological framework to explain impaired performance of everyday activities.

Caught in the ACTS: Defining Abstract Cognitive Task Sequences as an Independent Process

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