WAYFINDING IN DEMENTIA OF THE ALZHEIMER-TYPE - PLANNING ABILITIES

This paper reports on wayfinding in dementia, in particular the abilit y to develop decision plans for solving wayfinding problems in unfamil iar settings. Fourteen patients diagnosed as having mild to moderate d ementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT), and 28 normal elderly were asked to reach a destination in a large hospital setting, and to return to t he point of departure. Verbalizations of all subjects were recorded, t ranscribed, and content-analyzed in order to identify the decisions ma de during the trip and to establish their functional relationships rev ealing their planning abilities. Results showed that all DAT patients failed to reach the destination and return to the point of departure w ithout errors. Compared to normal elderly subjects, their overall deci sion plans were poorly structured, indicating basic problem-solving di sorders. However, they were able to solve well-defined problems and de velop sub-plans in routine situations when the necessary information w as readily available. Nondiscriminatory reading of irrelevant informat ion was also observed and tended to interfere with problem-solving.