Abstract: Objective: Verbal fluency measures are frequently part of batteries designed to assess executive function, but are also used to assess semantic processing ability or word knowledge. The goal of the present study was to identify the cognitive components underlying fluency performance.  Method: Healthy young and older adults, adults with Parkinson's disease, and adults with Alzheimer's disease performed letter, category, and action fluency tests. Performance was assessed in terms of number of items generated, clustering, and the time course of output. A series of neuropsychological assessments were also administered to index verbal ability, working memory, executive function, and processing speed as correlates of fluency performance.  Results: Findings indicated that regardless of the particular performance measure, young adults performed the best and adults with Alzheimer's disease performed most poorly, with healthy older adults and adults with Parkinson's disease performing at intermediate levels. The exception was the action fluency task, where adults with Parkinson's disease performed most poorly. The time course of fluency performance was characterized in terms of slope and intercept parameters and related to neuropsychological constructs. Speed of processing was found to be the best predictor of performance, rather than the efficiency of executive function or semantic knowledge.  Conclusions: Together, these findings demonstrate that the pattern of fluency performance looks generally the same regardless of how performance is measured. In addition, the primary role of processing speed in performance suggests that the use of fluency tasks as measures of executive function or verbal ability warrants reexamination. Text of paper begins on next page:McDowd, J., Hoffman, L., Rozek, E., Lyons, K., Pahwa, R., IntroductionExecutive function (EF) is increasingly recognized as an important factor in the functional status of older adults. This association has been observed in generally healthy community-dwelling older adults (e.g., Carlson et al., 1999; Grigsby et al., 1998;Royall et al, 2004), as well as in people with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) (Swanberg, Tractenberg, Mohs, Thal, & Commings, 2004) and Parkinson's Disease (PD) (Rochester, Hetherington, Jones, Nieuwboer, Willems, Kwakkel, & Van Wegan, 2004). A number of authors have suggested that an individual's executive abilities might be used to anticipate care needs or to plan rehabilitation programs (e.g., Carlson et al., 1999; Kahokehr et al., 2004;Royall et al, 2000). However, a better understanding of measures of EF is necessary in order to realize this potential for clinical significance.The tasks typically used to assess EF are complex, often involving a number of different cognitive processes. Verbal fluency measures are frequently part of batteries designed to assess EF but are also used to assess semantic processing ability or word knowledge. Since both semantic and executive processes may contribute to performance, it is of interest to isol...

This study suggests that older adults may benefit from HRV biofeedback interventions much like the younger populations that have been studied for decades. Depression, anxiety, and attentional skills were positively affected. Several participants reported improved sleep quality and stress management. Future studies should corroborate these findings.

Eyetracking has indicated that older and young adults process distracters similarly when reading single sentences. The present study extended this approach by presenting short paragraphs sentence by sentence. Eyetracking measures included reading times per word, and the duration of the first fixation and total fixations to the distracters and target words. Comprehension was tested following each paragraph and recognition of distracters and target words was assessed. The results indicated that young adults were able to learn to ignore the distracters as they read through the paragraphs whereas older adults were less successful at learning to ignore the distracters.

No abstract

Correlates of AP use varied by age, with stronger associations between on-label conditions and AP use among younger adults and off-label conditions among older adults. Several less conventional determinants, namely, Parkinson disease, traumatic brain injury, and the use of physical restraints were identified to increase the likelihood of AP use. This study highlights the importance of monitoring for adverse effects for residents of all ages.