Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-nwzlb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-19T04:21:29.669Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Age-Related Changes in Error Monitoring of an Everyday Task

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2013

Sara Balouch*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, East Sussex, United Kingdom
Jennifer M. Rusted
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, East Sussex, United Kingdom
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to: Sara Balouch, School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 9QH, United Kingdom. E-mail: s.balouch@sussex.ac.uk

Abstract

The process of checking in an everyday task to ensure error prevention/error correction, has not been systematically documented in relation to everyday action errors. This is surprising, given that studies of everyday task performance in people with dementia suggest poor error monitoring (error detection/correction). The present study documented age-related changes in errors and error monitoring behaviors, including the novel variable of checking (verbal/non-verbal gestures indicating active task monitoring), in an everyday task. In a 2 × 2 mixed-subjects design (n = 57), young and older adults performed a tea-making task under standard and dual-task conditions. Error rates were similar across age-groups and conditions. The dual-task condition reduced verbal checking and increased microslips (initiation and termination of an error before the error is completed) for both age-groups, when compared to the standard condition. In the standard condition, older adults engaged in more verbal checks than young adults, but this was not associated with improved task accuracy. Thus, both age-groups do engage in checking during an everyday task, but this checking had little impact on task accuracy. Consequently, checking may not be a necessary part of performance accuracy. Future studies should investigate whether enhanced awareness would make monitoring more effective. (JINS, 2013, 19, 1–10)

Type
Research Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arbuthnott, K., Frank, J. (2000). Trail Making Test, Part B as a measure of executive control: Validation using a set-switching paradigm. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 22(4), 518528.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Army Individual Test Battery (1944). The new army individual test of general mental ability. Psychological Bulletin, 41(8), 532538.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Band, G.P.H., Kok, A. (2000). Age effects on response monitoring in a mental-rotation task. Biological Psychology, 51, 201221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bettcher, B.M., Giovannetti, T. (2009). From cognitive neuroscience to geriatric neuropsychology: What do current conceptualizations of the action error handling process mean for older adults? Neuropsychology Review, 19(1), 6484.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bettcher, B.M., Giovannetti, T., Klobusicky, E., Wambach, D., Eppig, J., Libon, D. (2011). To err is human, to monitor divine: Environmental adaptations reduce everyday errors but do not improve monitoring. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 33(10), 10491058.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bettcher, B.M., Giovannetti, T., Macmullen, L., Libon, D.J. (2008). Error detection and correction patterns in dementia: A breakdown of error monitoring processes and their neuropsychological correlates. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 14, 199208.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blavier, A., Rouy, E., Nyssen, A., de Keyser, V. (2005). Prospective issues for error detection. Ergonomics, 48(7), 758781.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brennan, L., Giovannetti, T., Libon, D.J., Bettcher, B.M., Duey, K. (2009). The impact of goal cues on everyday performance in dementia. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 19(4), 562582.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Buxbaum, L.J., Schwartz, M., Montgomery, M. (1998). Ideational apraxia and naturalistic action. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 15, 617643.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clare, L., Wilson, B.A., Carter, G., Roth, I., Hodges, J. (2002). Assessing awareness in early stage Alzheimer's disease: Development and piloting of the Memory Awareness Scale. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 12, 341362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clare, L., Wilson, B.A., Carter, G., Roth, I., Hodges, J.R. (2004). Awareness in early-stage Alzheimer's disease: Relationship to outcome of cognitive rehabilitation. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 26(2), 215226.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Erdfelder, E., Faul, F., Buchner, A. (1996). GPOWER: A general power analysis program. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments and Computers, 28, 111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giovannetti, T., Bettcher, B., Brennan, L., Libon, D., Kessler, R., Duey, K. (2008). Coffee with jelly or unbuttered toast: Commissions and omissions are dissociable aspects of everyday action impairment in Alzheimer's disease. Neuropsychology, 22(2), 235245.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Giovannetti, T., Bettcher, B.M., Libon, D.J., Brennan, L., Sestito, N., Kessler, R.K. (2007). Environmental adaptations improve everyday action performance in Alzheimer's disease: Empirical support from performance-based assessment. Neuropsychology, 21(4), 448457.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Giovannetti, T., Libon, D.J., Buxbaum, L.J., Schwartz, M.F. (2002). Naturalistic action impairments in dementia. Neuropsychologia, 40(8), 12201232.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Giovannetti, T., Libon, D.J., Hart, T. (2002b). Awareness of naturalistic action errors in dementia. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 8(5), 633644.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Giovannetti, T., Schwartz, M.F., Buxbaum, L.J. (2007). The Coffee Challenge: A new method for the study of everyday action errors. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 29(7), 690705.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, T., Giovannetti, T., Montgomery, M.W., Schwartz, M.F. (1998). Awareness of errors in naturalistic action after traumatic brain injury. Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, 13(5), 1628.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Humphreys, G.W., Forde, E.M.E. (1998). Disordered action schema and action disorganisation syndrome. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 15, 771781.Google Scholar
Lamberty, G.J., Putnam, S.H., Chatel, D.M., Bieliauskas, L.A., Adams, K.A. (1994). Derived Trail Making Test indices. Neuropsychiatry, Neuropsychology, and Behavioral Neurology, 7, 230234.Google Scholar
Landis, J.R., Koch, G.G. (1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics, 33, 159174.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Markova, I.S., Clare, L., Wang, M., Romero, B., Kenny, G. (2005). Awareness in dementia: Conceptual issues. Aging & Mental Health, 9(5), 386393.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nelson, H.E. (1982). National Adult Reading Test (Part 1). Berkshire, England: The NFER-NELSON.Google Scholar
Noldus Information Technology (2003). The Observer: Professional System for Collection, Analysis, Presentation and Management of Observational Data. Reference Manual Version 5. Wageningen, The Netherlands: Noldus Information Technology bv.Google Scholar
Norman, D.A. (1981). Categorization of action slips. Psychological Review, 88, 115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabbitt, P. (2002). Consciousness is slower than you think. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 55A(4), 10811092.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramsden, C.M., Kinsella, G.J., Ong, B., Storey, E. (2008). Performance of everyday actions in mild Alzheimer's disease. Neuropsychology, 22(1), 1726.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reason, J. (1990). Human error. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ricker, J.H., Axelrod, B.N. (1994). Analysis of an oral paradigm for the Trail Making Test. Assessment, 1(1), 5155.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robertson, I., Ward, T., Ridgeway, V., Nimmo-Smith, I. (1996). The structure of normal human attention: The test of everyday attention. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 2(6), 525534.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rusted, J., Sheppard, L. (2002). Action-based memory in Alzheimer's disease: A longitudinal look at tea making. Neurocase, 8, 111126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwartz, M.F. (2006). The cognitive neuropsychology of everyday action and planning. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 23(1), 202.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schwartz, M., Buxbaum, L., Montgomery, M., Fitzpatrick-Desalme, E., Hart, T., Ferraro, M., Coslett, H.B. (1999). Naturalistic action production following right hemisphere stroke. Neuropsychologia, 37(1), 5166.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schwartz, M.F., Montgomery, M.W., Buxbaum, L.J., Lee, S.S., Carew, T.G., Coslett, H.B., Mayer, N. (1998). Naturalistic action impairment in closed head injury. Neuropsychology, 12, 1327.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schwartz, M.F., Segal, M., Veramonti, T., Ferraro, M., Buxbaum, L.J. (2002). The Naturalistic Action Test: A standardized assessment for everyday action. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 12(4), 311399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wechsler, D. (1987). Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised Manual. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar