The burden of online friends: the effects of giving up Facebook on stress and well-being.

People occasionally choose to cut themselves off from their online social network by taking extended breaks from Facebook. This study investigated whether abstaining from Facebook reduces stress but also reduces subjective well-being because of the resulting social disconnection. Participants (138 active Facebook users) were assigned to either a condition in which they were instructed to give up Facebook for 5 days or continue to use Facebook as normal.

An Automated Approach to Examining Conversational Dynamics between People with Dementia and Their Carers.

The progressive neuropathology involved in dementia frequently causes a gradual decline in communication skills. Communication partners who are unaware of the specific communication problems faced by people with dementia (PWD) can inadvertently challenge their conversation partner, leading to distress and a reduced flow of information between speakers. Previous research has produced an extensive literature base recommending strategies to facilitate conversational engagement in dementia.

Memory and communication support strategies in dementia: effect of a training program for informal caregivers.

Background: People with dementia have a range of needs that are met by informal caregivers. A DVD-based training program was developed using research-based strategies for memory and communication in dementia. The effectiveness of the training on the caregiver experience and the well-being of the person with dementia was evaluated.

Word length and age influences on forward and backward immediate serial recall.

The present research is aimed at understanding the processes involved in short-term memory and how they interact with age. Specifically, word length effects were examined under forward serial recall, backward serial recall, and item recognition tasks, with performance being interpreted within an item-order theoretical framework. The interaction of age, word length, and direction of recall was examined in two experiments, the first of which confirmed that the word length was present with forward recall and absent with backward recall.

Evaluation of a caregiver education program to support memory and communication in dementia: a controlled pretest-posttest study with nursing home staff.

Background: There is a need for simple multimedia training programs designed to upskill the dementia care workforce. A DVD-based training program entitled RECAPS and MESSAGE has been designed to provide caregivers with strategies to support memory and communication in people with dementia.

Objectives: The aims of this study were: (1) to evaluate the effects of the RECAPS and MESSAGE training on knowledge of support strategies, and caregiver satisfaction, in nursing home care staff, and (2) to evaluate staff opinion of the training.

Memory and communication support in dementia: research-based strategies for caregivers.

Background: Difficulties with memory and communication are prominent and distressing features of dementia which impact on the person with dementia and contribute to caregiver stress and burden. There is a need to provide caregivers with strategies to support and maximize memory and communication abilities in people with dementia. In this project, a team of clinicians, researchers and educators in neuropsychology, psychogeriatrics, nursing and speech pathology translated research-based knowledge from these fields into a program of practical strategies for everyday use by family and professional caregivers.

How many variables can humans process?

The conceptual complexity of problems was manipulated to probe the limits of human information processing capacity. Participants were asked to interpret graphically displayed statistical interactions. In such problems, all independent variables need to be considered together, so that decomposition into smaller subtasks is constrained, and thus the order of the interaction directly determines conceptual complexity.