A pilot rating system to evaluate the quality of goal attainment scales used as outcome measures in rehabilitation.

Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) is a method for writing person-centred approach evaluation scales that can be used as an outcome measure in clinical or research settings in rehabilitation. To be used in a research setting, it requires a high methodological quality approach. The aim of this study was to explore the feasibility and reliability of the GAS quality rating system, to ensure that GAS scales used as outcome measures are valid and reliable.

Interference effect of food and emotional stimuli in Stroop-like tasks for children and adults with Prader-Willi Syndrome.

Interference effect of food and emotional stimuli in Stroop-like tasks for children and adults with Prader-Willi Syndrome. The aim of this work was to study the way items related to food or emotion are processed by a population known to have difficulties with dietary restriction, namely individuals with Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS). Given the presence of intellectual disability (ID) in PWS, our experiments were designed to examine whether these difficulties were specific to PWS or linked with their ID.

Study of decision-making capacity in Prader-Willi syndrome with a Gambling Task.

Background: The present study investigated decision-making in patients with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) using the Soochow Gambling Task (SGT). The objective was to assess whether adults with PWS have impaired hot executive functions and whether the deficit is specific to PWS or linked to intellectual disabilities.

Method: The SGT performance of 26 adults with PWS was compared to that of 26 healthy adults matched on chronological age, and to that of 26 adults with intellectual disabilities but without PWS, matched on intellectual quotient level and chronological age.

Study of the deficit in planning abilities of adults with Prader-Willi Syndrome.

Background: Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a complex developmental genetic disorder associated with intellectual disability and deficits in executive functions which result in disorganisation and poor personal autonomy.

Aims: This study aimed to determine impairments in planning skills of adults with PWS, in relation with their intellectual disabilities, as well as the influence of food compulsions on their performance.

Methods And Procedures: A modified version of the Zoo Map from the Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome was used in three groups: a group of adults with PWS in comparison with two groups both matched on chronological age, one with typical development (TD) and one with intellectual disability (ID).

Improvement of Planning Abilities in Adults with Prader-Willi Syndrome: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) is a neurodevelopmental genetic disorder with executive deficits. Planning is one of the impaired executive functions implied in the regulation of behavior and everyday actions. We aimed to explore the feasibility and the effectiveness of a metacognitive strategy training designed to improve planning in adults with PWS using a double-blind between-group (training versus usual care) randomized controlled trial, with computerized tests and paper-pencil ecological outcome measures targeting planning, other executive functions, and achievement of personalized goal.

The influence of emotional contexts on mental flexibility in Prader-Willi syndrome.

Background: The present study investigated the influence of emotional contexts on mental flexibility in adults with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) using a voluntary task-switching paradigm that was implemented with emotionally valenced pictures. The study aims were to assess whether adults with PWS have impaired switching abilities, whether the deficit is specific to PWS or linked to intellectual disabilities, and the influence of emotional contexts on performance.

Method: The task-switching performance of 30 adults with PWS was compared with that of 30 healthy adults matched on chronological age, and to that of 30 adults with intellectual disabilities but without PWS, matched on intellectual quotient level and chronological age.

Cognitive Training Targeting Planning Dysfunction in Adults with Prader-Willi Syndrome: Brief Report of a Study Protocol.

: Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a neurodevelopmental genetic disorder involving executive deficits notably with planning. The main objective of the study is to assess the effectiveness of cognitive training on daily life planning difficulties in PWS patients. : The study is a double-blind randomized controlled trial which will compare the effectiveness of a metacognitive strategy intervention designed to improve planning difficulties for PWS patients to usual occupational therapy.

Exploring the contribution of executive functions to on-road driving performance during aging: A latent variable analysis.

Unlabelled: With the aging of the population the issue of older drivers safety has gained importance in recent years. Age-related cognitive decline is frequently cited as the main cause of unsafe driving performance in older drivers.

Objective: The present study investigated how executive functions (EFs), measured as latent variables, are related to on-road driving performance during aging.

Investigation of the relationship between electrodermal and behavioural responses to executive tasks in Prader-Willi syndrome: An event-related experiment.

Background: Recent work suggests that maladaptive behaviors in genetic developmental disorders may emerge from autonomic dysfunctions impacting higher order executive functions. In Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), executive functions are not well understood and investigations of possible underlying causes at the autonomic level are lacking.

Aims: This study aimed at clarifying the status of inhibition and working memory updating functions in PWS and searched for sympathetic signatures as well as to examine their links with executive performance.

Executive functions and Prader-Willi syndrome: global deficit linked with intellectual level and syndrome-specific associations.

The aim of this study was to support the growing evidence suggesting that Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) might present with an impairment of executive functions (EFs) and to investigate whether this impairment is specific to patients with PWS or due to their intellectual disability (ID). Six tasks were administered to assess EFs (inhibition, switching, updating, cognitive estimation, and planning) to 17 patients with PWS and 17 age-matched healthy individuals. Performance was significantly impaired in the PWS group on all EFs and after controlling for IQ level, intergroup differences remained only for switching and cognitive estimation.

[An integrative model of the psychological benefits of gardening in older adults].

This review of the literature tackles the question of the psychological benefits linked to gardening in older adults. First, the current data on these benefits are reviewed, and the findings reveal that gardening is linked to feelings of accomplishment, well-being and peace, a decrease of depressive symptoms, a protective effect on cognitive functions as well as to the development of social links for community living older adults. In institutionalized older adults, gardening promotes internal locus of control and well-being, and is related to a decrease of sadness and anxiety.

Investigation of age-related differences in an adapted Hayling task.

The Hayling task is traditionally used to assess activation and inhibitory processes efficiency among various populations, such as elderly adults. However, the classical design of the task may also involve the influence of strategy use and efficiency of sentence processing in the possible differences between individuals. Therefore, the present study investigated activation and inhibitory processes in aging with two formats of an adapted Hayling task designed to reduce the involvement of these alternative factors.

The effect of orthographic neighborhood in the reading span task.

This study aimed at examining whether and to what extent orthographic neighborhood of words influences performance in a working memory span task. Twenty-five participants performed a reading span task in which final words to be memorized had either no higher frequency orthographic neighbor or at least one. In both neighborhood conditions, each participant completed three series of two, three, four, or five sentences.

Assessment of executive functions in Prader-Willi syndrome and relationship with intellectual level.

Introduction: The aim of the present study was to determine whether individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) have impaired global executive functioning and whether this deficit is linked with intellectual disability. Another objective focussed on the variability in performance of intellectual quotient (IQ) and executive functions (EF) depending on the genotypic subtype. A final objective investigated whether the relationships between IQ and EF are different according to the genotypic subtype.

Inhibition of irrelevant information is not necessary to performance of expert chess players.

Some studies on expertise have demonstrated that the difference between novices and experts can be partly due to a lack of knowledge about which information is relevant for a given situation. This lack of knowledge seems to be associated with the selection of correct information and with inhibitory processes. However, while the efficiency of inhibitory processes can lead to better performance in the normal population, it seems that experts in chess do not base their performance on this process but rather on an automatic and parallel encoding of information.

Health and aging in elderly farmers: the AMI cohort.

Background: The health of the agricultural population has been previously explored, particularly in relation to the farming exposures and among professionally active individuals. However, few studies specifically focused on health and aging among elders retired from agriculture. Yet, this population faces the long-term effects of occupational exposures and multiple difficulties related to living and aging in rural area (limited access to shops, services, and practitioners).

The association between routinization and cognitive resources in later life.

The aim of this study was to investigate the association between routinization of daily life activities and cognitive resources during aging. Routinization could increase excessively during aging and become maladaptative in reducing individual resources. Fifty-two young participants (M = 20.

Destination memory in mild Alzheimer's Disease.

In order to assess their destination memory, sixteen patients with probable mild Alzheimer Disease (AD), sixteen older adults and 16 young adults were asked to tell facts to pictures. On a subsequent task, they were asked to remember whether they had previously told that fact to that face or not. AD patients showed poorer destination recall than the older adults, and the older adults showed poorer destination recall than the young adults.

Destination memory in Alzheimer's Disease: when I imagine telling Ronald Reagan about Paris.

Destination memory refers to remembering the destination of information that people output. This present paper establishes a new distinction between external and internal processes within this memory system for both normal aging and Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Young adults, older adults, and mild AD patients were asked either to tell facts (i.

Directed forgetting of autobiographical memory in mild Alzheimer's disease.

Using the autobiographical directed forgetting method (Barnier et al., 2007), the present paper addressed the intentional inhibitory processes of episodic and semantic autobiographical memory in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Mild AD patients and healthy elderly people were instructed to either forget or to continue remembering previously generated autobiographical events.

Personality traits and executive functions related to on-road driving performance among older drivers.

The present study investigated how executive functions and personality traits are related with driving performance among older drivers. Forty-two participants aged 60 and over were recruited to complete a battery of cognitive tests, measures of personality traits and an on-road driving test. Significant correlations were found between poor driving performances and low scores on tests assessing shifting and updating functions.

Strategy selection and aging: impact of item concreteness in paired-associate task.

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of aging on strategy selection in a paired-associate word task. Twenty-eight younger adults (mean age = 20.68 years) and 28 older adults (mean age = 68.

Effects of depressive symptoms and routinization on metamemory during adulthood.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of aging, depressive symptoms and preference for routine on metamemory. Twenty-eight young adults (of mean age=20.7 years) and 28 older adults (68.

The effect of aided language modeling on symbol comprehension and production in 2 preschoolers with autism.

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of an instructional procedure called aided language modeling (ALM) on symbol comprehension and expression in 2 preschool children with autism who used few words functionally. ALM consists of engaging the child in interactive play activities and providing models of use of augmentative and alternative communication symbols during play.

Method: A multiple-baseline design across sets of symbol vocabulary was used with 2 children who had autism.

Expertise in cognitive psychology: testing the hypothesis of long-term working memory in a study of soccer players.

This experiment compared several theories of expertise and exceptional performances in cognitive psychology. One current conception assumes that experts in a specific domain have developed a long-term working memory, which accounts for the difference in memory performance between experts and novices. The principal characteristics of this memory are the speed with which processes of storage and retrieval function and the existence of retrieval structures that allow a temporary activation of the knowledge store in long-term memory.