O ensino de discriminações condicionais para idosos com comprometimento cognitivo

Abstract

Old age brings cognitive impairment and the memory s loss is the most frequent. So, it is necessary to implement cognitive stimulation s procedures in order to minimize or to stabilize such losses. Studies based on Behavior Analysis, particularly in equivalence relations have shown the possibility of forming new relational networks by the elderly and that relational network could help to restore repertoires that are being affected by aging, such as remembering of names of people or objects. The present research had four studies, three of them with the objective to verify if conditional relations teaching, to the participants, could help them remembering names of people or objects and the fourth study with the objective to verify if conditional discriminations teaching biographical data could form equivalence relations. The participants were four old women diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Before submitting them to the experimental procedures, the initial repertoire was evaluated. In the Studies 1, 2 and 3, the conditional relations were trained with sound (word dictated), image (representative of the word) and text (written word); these stimuli were presented or in simultaneous pairing or also with successive pairing (0 and 5 seconds). In the Study 4 only visual stimuli were used with simultaneous pairing. The emergence of new relations was tested, and the final repertoire was evaluated. The results of the first three studies showed improvement in remembering names behavior, but it was observed significant variation, among the participants, in the emergence of new relations. In the Study 4 was observed the emergence of equivalence relations. Some possible variables that may have interfered in the participants performance were pointed out, and suggestions for future studies were presented