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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SLEEP, WORKING MEMORY, AND DECISION MAKING IN YOUNG AND OLD ADULT POPULATIONS
Title
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SLEEP, WORKING MEMORY, AND DECISION MAKING IN YOUNG AND OLD ADULT POPULATIONS.
Creator
Merz, Melissa G., Lighthall, Nichole, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Sleep is known to influence basic tasks concerning working memory, reaction time and executive functioning (Silva, Wang, Ronda, Wyatt, & Duffy, 2010; Nebes, Buysse, Halligan, Houck, & Monk, 2009). However, the amount that sleep influences these functions varies from study to study possibly due to differences in age and task design. Aim 1A of this study is to determine if sleep quality affects working memory. Aim 1B of this study is to determine if age affects sleep quality and working memory...
Show moreSleep is known to influence basic tasks concerning working memory, reaction time and executive functioning (Silva, Wang, Ronda, Wyatt, & Duffy, 2010; Nebes, Buysse, Halligan, Houck, & Monk, 2009). However, the amount that sleep influences these functions varies from study to study possibly due to differences in age and task design. Aim 1A of this study is to determine if sleep quality affects working memory. Aim 1B of this study is to determine if age affects sleep quality and working memory in comparison of young and old adult populations. Finally, Aim 2 of this study is to determine if there is a relationship between sleep quality, working memory, and decision making in the younger adults. These aims were researched using a validated and commonly used sleep questionnaire: the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). In addition, the study utilized an n-back test to measure working memory and executive functioning, and an economic decision task to measure decision making accuracy. Results show that sleep quality did not significantly influence accuracy on an n-back test in either age group, but age was significantly correlated with accuracy on an n-back test in the older adults. The study also found a relationship between working memory performance and complex decision making among younger adults, but this relationship was not modulated by sleep quality. Our findings suggest that self-reported sleep quality is not a strong predictor of working memory or complex decision making, particularly in early adulthood. Future research on this topic may benefit from a more objective measure of sleep quality and from larger samples across different phases of the lifespan.
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Date Issued
2017
Identifier
CFH2000210, ucf:46023
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH2000210
THE NEXUS BETWEEN COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY AND PREJUDICIAL ATTITUDES IN YOUNGER AND OLDER ADULTS
Title
THE NEXUS BETWEEN COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY AND PREJUDICIAL ATTITUDES IN YOUNGER AND OLDER ADULTS.
Creator
Germosen, Yerika, Negy, Charles, Lighthall, Nichole, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
The mutability of prejudicial attitudes can be elucidated by taking into account the declines in cognition that tend to emerge as we age. This study aimed to assess whether there is a relationship between prejudice towards different ethnic groups and cognitive flexibility throughout adulthood. Ninety-five older adults and 118 younger adults were asked to complete an electronic survey encompassing measures of cognitive flexibility, social desirability, personality, optimism, empathy, ethnic...
Show moreThe mutability of prejudicial attitudes can be elucidated by taking into account the declines in cognition that tend to emerge as we age. This study aimed to assess whether there is a relationship between prejudice towards different ethnic groups and cognitive flexibility throughout adulthood. Ninety-five older adults and 118 younger adults were asked to complete an electronic survey encompassing measures of cognitive flexibility, social desirability, personality, optimism, empathy, ethnic attachment and prejudice. It was hypothesized that older adults would report lower levels of cognitive flexibility and higher levels of ethnic attachment in comparison to younger adults, which would in turn make the inverse relationship between cognitive flexibility and prejudice stronger in older participants. The results did not support the hypotheses predicting that there would be cohort differences in cognitive flexibility and ethnic attachment. As expected, there was a negative correlation between prejudice and cognitive flexibility, but it was only significant in younger adults before controlling for the influence of social desirability. Additionally, regression models predicting prejudice based on cognitive flexibility and ethnic attachment were significant before and after controlling for social desirability, but only in younger adults. Exploratory analyses indicate that the strength of the correlations between all study variables were generally lower in older adults. The findings presented here raise an argument for evaluating how the interplay between prejudice and cognitive flexibility may change in the later stages of life.
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Date Issued
2019
Identifier
CFH2000497, ucf:45671
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH2000497
Do multiple conditions elicit the visual redundant signals effect in simple response times?
Title
Do multiple conditions elicit the visual redundant signals effect in simple response times?.
Creator
Mishler, Ada, Neider, Mark, Lighthall, Nichole, Szalma, James, Joseph, Dana, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
The redundant signals effect, or redundancy gain, is an increase in human processing efficiency when target redundancy is introduced into a display. An advantage for two visual signals over one has been found in a wide variety of speeded response time tasks, but does not always occur and may be weakened by some task parameters. These disparate results suggest that visual redundancy gain is not a unitary effect, but is instead based on different underlying mechanisms in different tasks. The...
Show moreThe redundant signals effect, or redundancy gain, is an increase in human processing efficiency when target redundancy is introduced into a display. An advantage for two visual signals over one has been found in a wide variety of speeded response time tasks, but does not always occur and may be weakened by some task parameters. These disparate results suggest that visual redundancy gain is not a unitary effect, but is instead based on different underlying mechanisms in different tasks. The current study synthesizes previous theories applied to redundancy gain into the three-conditions hypothesis, which states that visual redundancy gain depends on the presence of at least one of three factors: visual identicalness between multiple targets, familiarity with multiple similar targets, or prepotentiation for multiple different targets. In a series of four simple response time experiments, participants responded to single targets presented to one side of the visual field, or to bilateral targets presented to both sides of the visual field. The first three experiments each explored one condition, the first experiment by comparing identical to non-identical random shapes to examine visual identicalness, the second by comparing familiar to unfamiliar letters to examine familiarity, and the third by comparing previewed with non-previewed random shapes to examine prepotentiation. Finally, the fourth experiment employed letters that varied in familiarity, identicalness, and preview, to examine whether or not the three hypothesized causes have multiplicative effects on redundancy. Results indicated that participants were able to benefit equally from redundancy regardless of identicalness, familiarity, or prepotentiation, but that they did so by ignoring one target in the redundant-target trials. These results suggest that redundancy gain may need to be even further divided into more than three underlying mechanisms, with a serial processing mechanism that can be used for stimuli that are not familiar, prepotentiated, or identical.
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Date Issued
2017
Identifier
CFE0006899, ucf:52890
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006899
The Longitudinal Relationship between Moderate Alcohol Use and Cognitive Aging among Older Adults.
Title
The Longitudinal Relationship between Moderate Alcohol Use and Cognitive Aging among Older Adults.
Creator
Herring, Danielle, Paulson, Daniel, Renk, Kimberly, Lighthall, Nichole, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Cognitive aging appears inconsistent across cognitive domains, indicating that domains may not all decline at the same rate across individuals. Individual trajectories of cognitive aging can vary widely and are affected by numerous lifestyle and health factors. Alcohol use among older adults is known to confer both health risks, typically related to excessive use, and protective effects, often associated with moderate consumption. Moderate alcohol use has been linked with better cognitive...
Show moreCognitive aging appears inconsistent across cognitive domains, indicating that domains may not all decline at the same rate across individuals. Individual trajectories of cognitive aging can vary widely and are affected by numerous lifestyle and health factors. Alcohol use among older adults is known to confer both health risks, typically related to excessive use, and protective effects, often associated with moderate consumption. Moderate alcohol use has been linked with better cognitive functioning as well as a decrease in cardiovascular mortality and systemic inflammation, as compared to heavy or abstinent users. Given that extant research has identified C-reactive protein (CRP) as a mediator between the relationship of moderate alcohol use and cardiovascular disease mortality, this study examined the potential mediating role of CRP between moderate alcohol use and cognitive performance in later life. Therefore, the primary goals of this thesis were to: (1) examine the relationship between moderate alcohol use and cognitive aging over time in a demographically representative, longitudinal survey of Americans over the age of 65, and (2) examine a potential biological mechanisms by which this putative relationship functions. The sample utilized for this study consisted of the ADAMS sample of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a longitudinal, cohort-style study on health, retirement, and aging conducted by the University of Michigan and supported by the National Institute of Aging. In order to assess the effect of moderate alcohol use as related to the rate of change in cognitive performance over time, a series of slope-intercept models were run. Logistic regressions and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis were used to examine predictors of dementia risk and time-to-diagnosis. Results indicated that moderate alcohol use was significantly associated with better baseline functioning across cognitive measures (p ?.05), but had no significant effect on rate of change over time. Next, structural equation models were employed to examine the effect of alcohol use on cognitive performance as mediated by CRP within each domain. Ultimately, results from this study did not support the hypothesized models. Following this, a logistic regression and survival analysis were conducted in order to assess the effect of moderate alcohol use on dementia diagnosis. Results of these analyses indicated that moderate users of alcohol develop dementia at lower rates, and later in life, than do abstinent older adults. Lastly, a structural equation model was run to evaluate the effect of alcohol use on dementia diagnosis as mediated by CRP. Primary findings did not support the hypothesized model. Overall, findings from this study suggest that moderate alcohol use is associated with better cognitive functioning among community-dwelling older adults, and these relative benefits appear to persist throughout later life. Moderate alcohol use may also be related to a slower rate and onset of dementia development. Future research should investigate alternate biological mechanisms relating moderate alcohol use and cognitive functioning in later life.
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Date Issued
2016
Identifier
CFE0006460, ucf:51432
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006460