R. Passini et al., WAYFINDING IN DEMENTIA OF THE ALZHEIMER-TYPE - PLANNING ABILITIES, Neuropsychology, development, and cognition. Section A, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology, 17(6), 1995, pp. 820-832
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.