Changes in cognitive functioning are known to occur for most people with advancing age. The capacity to direct attention (CDA), a type of selective attention, refers to the ability to inhibit competing and distracting stimuli while processing information from the internal and external environments. Although considerable individual variability exists, CDA appears to decline with age. A theoretical framework linking attentional fatigue to losses in CDA guides his research. According to this framework, CDA works through neural inhibitory mechanisms that suppress distractions. Such inhibition requires considerable mental effort. Attentional demands are factors that operate as the competing and distracting stimuli that must be suppressed (inhibited). Overuse of the neural inhibitory mechanism due to the presence of excessive demands produces attentional fatigue and the inability to attend to everyday activities. On the other hand, restorative activities potentially allow CDA to rest and recover. Restorative activities are situations that allow one to reflect --no demands on CDA are made. Such activities include exposure to fascinating and interesting stimuli such as the natural environment. The proposed research program will identify factors that may reduce CDA in the elderly (attentional demands) and examine activities and environmental factors that support and restore it. A series of three studies will be conducted. Study 1 will be a quantitative study to identify the domain of items that constitute attentional demands in a convenience sample of 30 healthy elderly adults. Study 2 will involve developing an attentional demands survey based on a content analysis of the data from study 1. The reliability and validity of the instrument will be tested on a large group of community dwelling elderly. Study 3 will be a descriptive correlational design intended to examine the potential moderating role of restorative activities on the effects of attentional demands on CDA for a group of 88 community dwelling elderly. Future work can examine nursing interventions to reduce attentional demands and provide restoration in an attempt to maintain or enhance CDA in the elderly.
| Jansen, D A; Keller, M L (1999) An instrument to measure the attentional demands of community-dwelling elders. J Nurs Meas 7:197-214 |
