Rainy Days and Mondays

Dementia is a general term for a decline in mental ability severe enough to interfere with daily life. Memory loss is an example. Alzheimer's is the most common type of dementia. This episode relates a lot to what we studied in chapter 7 about memory. Virginia’s dementia affected all types of her three-part memory storage system; sensory storage, short-term storage and long-term storage. Virginia often couldn’t even remember that Karen was her daughter or where her home was. During this episode they talked about how families talk about past events they did as a family, but Virginia no longer has those memories in her long-term storage to recall. Experts used to recommend people have reminders around the house to help someone with dementia recall what things are. This is known as prospective memory, which helps us remember to do things. Some use sticky notes and other devices as reminders. To help someone with dementia, one could label objects around the house (fridge, lamp, door, etc.).
The fact that Karen and her husband Mondy used improv to communicate with Virginia was very interesting to me. They tried to live in her life, rather than pulling her into theirs. They never corrected her when she was wrong, but rather played along with it. One time Virginia was saying how there were monkeys outside. Rather than correcting her, Monday made a joke saying “yes, and it’s a little early for them to be up.” This made making conversation with Virginia a lot easier and quite fun. This also worked out well for Mondy and Karen because they are actors and could practice their improv and made Virginia really happy. I found it funny how much she loved Mondy for this and even considered him her son. I think this actually helped her remember things, whether they were correct or not. For example, Virginia started fitting Mondy into her childhood memories even though this was not possible. This is an example of how our memory can be distortion or flawed. This can occur in four ways; memory bias, flashbulb memories, misattribution, and suggestibility. Research has shown clearly that human memory provides less than accurate portrayals of past events. I felt bad for Karen though because these rules sometimes require her to lie about who she was and her own childhood memories. Instead of arguing with her mom that she was her daughter, she had to agree with her and move on. That for me would be very hard.
Dementia seems to be a very complex disease with a lot of unanswered questions. I would like to know if there is any type of screening that could be done to determine if someone is going to get it, and when. I would also like to know how close research is to finding a cure or determining what causes dementia. Our memory has a lot of different parts, is there a part of our memory that will never fade away?

Psychology Terms: sensory storage, short-term storage, long-term storage, prospective memory, memory bias, flashbulb memories, misattribution, suggestibility, memory

This section of the episode of This American Life titled Rainy Days and Mondays, they discuss situations of Alzheimer’s and Dementia. Karen, daughter of Virginia, talks about her experience with her mother’s Alzheimer’s. They stated a statistic that every minute someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Continuing with Karen and her mother, Karen figured out a way to benefit the situation of her mother’s situation. Karen has experience in Improvisation or Improv for short. She realized that Improv and Alzheimer’s are rather parallel to one another, actually stating it in the episode. An example of Karen’s work with her mother was when Virginia, her mother, stated that she wanted to go home. Karen asked Virginia to describe her home. Virginia forgot about wanting to go home but she still thought about her home. Another example was when Mondy, Karen’s husband, decided to ask Virginia if she would want to work in the mines with him because they needed money to pay the bills. Virginia, laughing, said no and that she doesn't dig. They decided to stop the entire operation (that never really existed). This entire episode makes me think about chapter 7, memory. Alzheimer’s is entirely based on memory and what we remember or forget. Alzheimer’s creates blockages between neural transmitters. Neurons die, losing that connection to the brain. I have always wondered what it would be like to have Alzheimer’s and the feelings that I would have while people try to explain memories to me that I don’t remember at all. If I had a choice, I would like for someone perform Improv on me like Karen did to her mother. I don’t want someone to argue whether I am right or wrong because I have learned that this just makes things more difficult for the person with Alzheimer’s. As they talked about blissful ignorance, that is what I want to experience. Whether I know what I am talking about or not, I want people to make me feel happy or keep me in a positive mood, not to break me down and tell me that I’m wrong.

Terminology: Memory, Alzheimer’s, neural transmitters

In this week’s episode there were a few things that I was able to relate to. One was the use of improve. I used to be in a theatre class and had to use improve all of the time and learning the motions of just going with it. Another thing that I could relate to was someone’s memory slowly deteriorating. I used to have this neighbor when I was a little girl and her I and used to be best friends. She was an older later and her and her husband used to hang out with me all of the time. I remember though that one day the husband began forgetting little things here and there. But as the days went by he forget important things like where he was, he couldn’t remember who my parents where, and he even began forgetting me. I remember one day I went home after he couldn’t remember who I was and I was devastated because I thought he was just being mean to me. My parents had to explain what was happening to him and why he was forgetting things. Then a year or so later he had passed away. Now, I’m going through a similar situation with my grandma. Recently she has had a lot of health problems and has slowly been forgetting things as well. I remember one day a few months back a bunch of us where sitting in her living room and she had started talking to, but she couldn’t remember my name and had thought that was someone else for a few minutes. The whole family just kind of looked at me and then they looked at my grandma and had said, “That’s Laura, mom.” And my grandma just looked at me and then it was like a light bulb had turned on in her head and she said, “Oh yeah. Don’t pay attention to me, I don’t know what I’m saying half of the time.” I just played along and had acted like nothing had happened that entire time because I didn’t want to be rude and correct her. In this episode I found that the use of improve was very helpful. I never thought about taking those skills and applying to a situation where people have Alzheimer’s. You always hear the phrase, “put yourself in someone else’s shoes,” but you never really do or consider it. But when you’re living with someone who is losing their memory all you can do is just go with the flow because you can’t change what’s happening to them. Some people don’t think that their loved ones are smart or intelligent anymore because they can’t remember things, but that is so not true. They need your support and you both need to be in the same reality, not stuck in the past of the person that they used to be. As Fall Out Boy had once said, “Remember me as I was not as I am.” You don’t need to forget the person they used to be, just acknowledging that they’ve changed and still be there for them. I would love to learn more about the cause of Alzheimer’s and the genetics behind it all because genetics are cool.
Terms: memory, Alzheimer’s, intelligent, improve

Rainy Days and Mondays blog response

10/14/14

There are a few aspects from various chapter readings that I can relate to this blog. Some of the very apparent ones would be memory and thinking. Clearly dementia, which Virginia has, affects the memory of a person. Dementia is defined by our book as severe impairment in intellectual capacity and personality, often due to damage to the brain. Now, I saw many people throwing around the term Alzheimer’s and I was curious to see if the two were they same. What I found is that Alzheimer’s is actually a type of dementia, which specifically targets memory, speech and often creates great confusion. Dementia is the blanket term for a certain set of symptoms, but a variety of diseases could be causing the symptoms of dementia.

So now that we have a basic understanding of what dementia is, I’d like to relate it back to what we’ve learned in psych. To start how does it relate to thinking? Well last week we talked about tons of different theories on thinking and how thinking works. Some aspects that could really be affected in thinking by dementia are your decision-making skills. For example, In the process of thinking we have what’s called a heuristic, something that makes decisions easier to make based on previous experiences. There’s also mental sets and functional fixedness. These both use previous knowledge to solve a problem. Virginia no longer has a lot of her previous knowledge; so smart decision-making can sometimes become an issue. To use an example from the story, Virginia didn’t remember that she was a diabetic, so she didn’t know how to make smart decisions when it came to food.

Another thing that is affected is memory. One thing that’s obvious is that Virginia forgets things very often, she just can’t remember things, and she can’t pull them out of her long-term storage. If by chance she does remember things from a long time ago, they are often times distorted. Recall the story about the strawberries, she remembers where she was but she does not remember that she was with her daughter and her husband. It affects many aspects of memory.

Something else that I think is important to note is that it effects her perception as well. So it’s important to notice that there’s a large chance that it could be affecting her sensory storage as well. For example, she doesn’t really see my monkey’s but her brain perceives whatever the sensory input is, to be monkeys. She’s not making it up, in her mind; the monkeys are really there. To her everything she see’s or thinks is real, because she has no reason to believe otherwise.

I think what I found to be most interesting about this episode was the fact that this family just chose to step into her world. They mentioned that in earlier studies doctors stressed trying to keep them relevant by reminding them who you were and who they were, but now they are coming to different conclusions. This really does make a lot of sense to me because the way I think about it, it’s almost like hospice care. You know that their patient is terminal or in this case, not going to regain their memory, so why make it more painful and drawn out? For the family it may be happier to try to make the person remember. But for the ill, it makes them feel confused frustrated and angry.

Something that I’d really like to learn more about is the neurological side of dementia, like what parts of the brain it attacks, why it does that, how it develops and what it actually does to the connections and neurons in the brain.

Terms: Memory, Thinking, Dementia, Alzheimer’s, Heuristic, Mental Sets, Functional Fixedness, Long Term Storage, Distorted, Perception, Sensory Storage, Sensory Input.

I think this episode relates to this week’s chapter reading because Virginia has dementia and her daughter Karen and Son-in-law Mondy have come up with ways to help her remember or to live a halfway normal life. It is hard for the couple and their family to live with her, because she cannot remember most of her life. The family is still so loving and supportive of Virginia. They moved from their home up north to South Carolina. I found it interesting that the couple are actors and the best way they found was to improv or just go with Virginia’s way of thinking. That must have been hard. I do not think that I could have done that. Plus who would have thought that a very good technique to help Dementia or Alzheimer’s patients would be to do improv. Although I can now see how it would help them. Since there is no cure for these diseases, it would be helpful to just help them as much as you can. They do not remember what is happening or has happened in Virginia’s case. Everyone will just get angry and frustrated if you try and make the patient remember. It will make everyone’s lives easier to just be kind and love them. I would like to know what are some other ways to help Alzheimer and dementia patients, and how exactly this disease works and how you get it through inheritance.
Terms used: Alzheimer, memory.

This episode of This American Life radio show was about Alzheimer's disease and its effect on people who are surrounding particular patient which usually are close relatives. They was talking about case of Virginia, mother of Karen and Virginia had diagnosed Alzheimer's disease. We all know that older people tend to have difficulty with memory tasks that require perceiving and interpreting multiple pieces of information at the same time. For example, some older people may have difficulties with driving a car and listening to the radio. This episode relates to few chapters we learned before like how we develop throughout life span. I remember that this chapter was talking about Alzheimer's disease as common type of dementia. Dementia is severe impairment in intellectual capacity and personality, often due to damage to the brain. Thus older adults like Virginia who experience a dramatic loss in mental ability are experiencing dementia. From the episode one of the most memorable information was that according to Alzheimer's association every 67 seconds somebody in US develops the disease. Also almost everybody has had some sort of personal experience with this horrible disease. The initial symptoms of Alzheimer's are typically not huge memory impairments but as in case of Virginia the disease eventually progressed to more serious difficulties. She could not remember that Karen is her daughter. Thus, as I understood first symptoms of this disease are short term memory loss such as difficulties with remembering recent event. With progression of the disease patient will loss long term memory, what happened to Virginia. Also patient will have problems with thinking ability. Thinking is the mental manipulation of representations of information we encounter in our environments. So chapters about memory and its types and thinking and intelligence also relate to this episode.
One of the most parts interesting to me from this episode was about technique that we need to use when some of the close people are suffering from this disease. “Step into their world” means that you do not need to correct their mistakes. If they said or did something wrong, no need to said “no” or question their premise. Just step into their world, whatever world they have created. In case of Virginia, Karen’s husband Mondy became that person who had stepped into her world. He became closest person to her, even closer than her daughter. Also I liked the part when specialist for this disease said that usually when spend time with our family we recalling sweet memories from the past. It is nice to share memories, it makes you feel connected. However we are remembering those memories only because at the present tome we are bored. At that time we had fun and that is why we are remembering it. In this case Mondy became that person with whom Virginia could had fun and not to remembering old memories. He did not talk with her like she is sick or she is doing something wrong, they were equal and just spend good time together.
I would like to learn more about Alzheimer’s disease. As I know some people have genetic predisposition to the disease. Are there any studies that may say what the cause of it? Sometimes not only older people have it; there are some cases when adults around 30 to 40 years old could suffer. So what is the reason that younger people have this kind of dementia? Is there any environment impact that the percentage of people with Alzheimer’s increasing every day?
Terms used: memory, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, Alzheimer’s association, long term memory, short term memory, thinking, genetic predisposition, memory impairments.

For this episode Magic Words/Rainy Days and Mondays, I made connections in chapter eight in section two: ”How We Make Decisions and Solve Problems?” Throughout the section it talks about different types of thinking that we use: reasoning, decision making, and problem solving. Reasoning is when you use information to determine if a conclusion is valid or reasonable. During the radio talk the family tried their best to not use reasoning when with their grandmother, Virginia who had Alzheimer’s. Why they do this is because almost everything Virginia says is not valid or reasonable. For example she believes she sees monkeys outside the window and that her son-in-law, Mondy, was with her in her childhood. But instead of correcting Virginia, they go along with her. The family throws their reasoning out the window and become part of Virginia’s world.
Another type of thinking that we use is decision making where we try to attempt to select the best alternative among several options. For example, say you need to choose between going out with your friends or staying in and get some rest. To make your decision you would use certain criteria to make up your mind and even make a pros and cons list. Karen, one of the daughters of Virginia, had to use this type of thinking when trying to decide if she should constantly correct her mother when she made crazy accusations, or if she should go along with her mom’s silly stories.
Virginia’s family had to use the other type of thinking, problem solving, quite a bit too. Problem solving is finding a way around an obstacle to reach a goal. For Karen and her husband Mondy problem solving had become an everyday thing for them. They had to find was around how to explain to Virginia why she couldn’t have another bowl of cereal. Instead of saying, “No you can’t have another bowl because of you cholesterol.” They would have Mondy, who had become Virginias favorite to say how hungry he was and she’d automatically give her extra bowl of cereal to him.
The thing that I found the most interesting about this episode was the fact the Virginia’s brain could take hold of her old memories and completely change them or even just delete them. It’d be intriguing, I think, to find out more about the process of Alzheimer’s and watch how someone’s brain activity changes and how rapidly. I also would like to know why the brain would choose certain memories to delete and keep. Is there a pattern or reason why the brain does that or is it just completely at random? Those are some questions I have and what I’d like to learn more about on Alzheimer’s.
Terms: Alzheimer’s, reasoning, decision making, problem solving

This week on This American Life we learned more about Alzheimer’s and how to deal with a loved one that has the disease. Alzheimer’s is a disease that causes the brain to degenerate and the prognosis is continual progressive mental deterioration. Chapter 7 related a lot to this show, as it dealt with memory and Alzheimer’s has to do with the loss of memory. We see in this show that Virginia, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, lost most of both her short and long-term memories. We know this because she has no idea who her daughter is or where home is. Chapter 7 also touched on explicit memory, episodic memory, and sematic memory. These are types of memories that are lost by people suffering from Alzheimer’s. Once someone loses their memory it is virtually impossible get back.
The most interesting topic to me was how you are supposed to talk to someone with Alzheimer’s. The show talked about how you are supposed to agree with them and go along with whatever they are saying. I can relate to this from my experience of working in a nursing home. I had thought I wanted to be a nurse and took a CNA course through Kirkwood Community College. As a part of this program we were required to work at a nursing home, including time in the Alzheimer’s unit. The show discussed how you should have signs about things such as the weather, the date, and who the current President is. This helps the patients and gives them some ordinance. When working in the Alzheimer’s unit, I noticed that there were a lot of big bold words around the unit with the date and the forecast. The rooms in the unit were also very plain, having no bright colors, it was very calm and relaxing environment. I found the story interesting when the man was discussing monkeys with the Alzheimer’s patient. The man totally went along with the conversation even telling the patient that they should catch the next monkey that she sees. This was clever of the man, but what struck me was when the patient told him that they couldn’t keep monkeys inside. I was surprised that she still had some rational thoughts and was in touch with some reality.
There are a few things that I would like to learn more about on the topic of Alzheimer’s. I am curious about the development the disease including how long from initial onset until total forgetfulness. I would like to better understand what it is actually like to have the disease. Alzheimer’s is such a complicated topic that I am very interested in learning more about it.
Terms: Memory, short-term memory, long-term memory, explicit memory, episodic memory, sematic memory

This episode reminded me a lot of the residents at my nursing home back home. About 75% of the residents have dementia so I could relate to how Karen and Mondy had to respond to Karen’s mother, Virginia.

This episode could go right along with the memory chapter. Dementia is severe impairment in intellectual capacity and personality, often due to damage to the brain. Alzheimer’s is the number one most common type of dementia. Virginia’s dementia had affected her short term and long-term memory. You can tell that these were affected because she would constantly tell Karen I want to go home or that she did not even know her own child or grandchildren. Going back to my job at home at a nursing home, I can relate to the sign, which states what day it is, what the weather is like and what the next holiday is. I feel this helps some people but not all.

One of the topics that I thought was the most interesting was how Mondy could relate and get along so well with Karen’s mother Virginia and how he “stepped into her world”. I thought this was very interesting because Mondy and Karen both knew that there was no monkeys or even a coal mine in their backyard but instead of correct Virginia and making her upset and hostile, they decided to ‘step into her world’ and that not only helped Virginia but also helped Mondy and Karen’s acting skills.

I would like to learn about how diseases like Dementia and Alzheimer’s can be either prevented or cured. I cannot even imagine what it was like for Karen when her mother had no idea who she was. Another thing that would be great would be are their any studies being done today to find a cure for this memory-losing disease? The final thing I would like to know about is how the brain decides what memories to remember and what memories to forget.

The psychological terms I used were memory, dementia, brain, short term memory and long term memory.

While listening to Act Two in This American Life; Rainy Days and Mondys, dementia is the main topic of discussion. Dementia is when older adults experience a dramatic loss in memory and mental ability due to damage to the brain. The elderly woman we met, Virginia, has experienced dementia. Her short-term and long-term storage of memories appear to be lost. In our process of thinking, heuristics, mental sets, and functional fixedness, all reflect on decision making. As we listened, it was obvious Virginia’s decision making skills were poor. For example, Virginia is diabetic and Karen caught her eating a bucket of ice cream. Karen took it away from her and explained that this type of eating with effect Virginia’s health. Because of Virginia’s dementia she could not remember that she was diabetic nor would the food in her mouth effect her well-being.

I think this weeks reading over thinking and intelligence can relate to this story. Karen, Virginia’s daughter, developed a more improvisational technique when approaching or conversing with Virginia. Why? When living with a person diagnosed with dementia, it is difficult to discuss something without the individual being upset or mad. In return, Karen could have been rude and simply told her mother to be quiet because she will never understand anything. If Karen would have used this verbal abuse, Virginia would have thought she lost all her intelligence and thinking skills, making her feel like there is no point in being around. Karen knows that nobody should feel this way so her and her husband, Mondy, used improvisation to help them communicate with Virginia. Mondy, took full advantage with this improvisation because this was also his job (Karen’s as well). What I found most interesting was that Virginia enjoyed Mondy being around because he was so funny and he connected with her on several levels. Virginia thought Mondy was the best! But, Virginia hardly remembered her daughter and granddaughter. She forgot all the memories they had. In This American Life, they mentioned that Karen had to take herself out of memories because her mother could not remember her in them. This was very hard for Karen. Karen and her family needed to “live in a different reality.” For example, strawberries reminded Virginia of home but, Karen was not remembered in these memories of her’s. I found this very sad because these are the memories Karen will want to remember when she gets older and by taking herself out of them will cause the encoding process to distort the memory maybe even forgetting it.

What I would like to learn more about is how amnesia and dementia compare and contrast from each other. Are they entirely different? Also, is dementia mainly inherited or is it just caused by severe brain damage? Lastly, are doctor’s attempting to find a cure for dementia or is it too late in life to cure?

Terms: Dementia, Memory, Thinking, Intelligence, Short-Term Storage, Long-Term Storage, Heuristic, Mental Sets, Functional Fixedness, Encoding, Amnesia, Forgetting

I think that this episode relates a lot to what we read in chapter 7 about memory. Because it was about someone who had dementia, which is when there is a major decline in your mental ability and causes interference with daily life. This has to do with memory because it dementia does affect your memory and causes you to forget things that happen in your everyday life. In this episode, Virginia’s dementia affected the types of memory, which are sensory storage, short term storage, and long term storage. During this episode, they talked about past events that have happened in Virginia’s life that she did with her friends and family but she could not even remember them, which is a big affect on her long term memory. She also could not even remember the names of her loved ones. There are different solutions that people can do to take care of loved ones with dementia. They can put little messages all around the house to remind Virginia that something needs to be done, because she probably forgot. Or if is very severe, they can be hospitalized. But when working with people with dementia, it takes a lot of patience, and you have to play along with them instead of trying to correct them, because it makes it a lot easier than to argue with someone with dementia.
I have actually had experience with someone with dementia so I know how difficult it may be. My grandma was admitted into the hospital with dementia and other problems. She could not remember her family, her children, her husband, where she lived. The only thing she remembered was how she grew up, and she was stuck in the time period where she was only twenty years old. So when my mom went to visit her, which was every single day, my grandma had no idea who she was. At times, she would yell at my mom and tell her to leave because she did not like her and she was a stranger. She did the same thing to my grandpa. She did not know him and did not show any interest in him. She actually thought that she was dating a guy that she dated when she was 20 years old. So this was very hard on my family. But after about 6 months, she went back to normal after the right hospitalization. She remembers everything about her life. The only thing she doesn’t remember is the time that she spent in the hospital.
Dementia can really ruin someones life and can have a major impact on the people around them. Dealing with it may not be easy, but it has to be done so that maybe that person can turn around and become healthy again.
I would like to learn more about why this happens, and why people remember some things, but not other things. Like do they remember things out of importance? Or how does that work? Is there a cure or do some people stay like that forever and some people become better?
Psychological terms: sensory stage, short term storage, long term storage

This weeks blog I can relate very very closely to because my grandmother suffered from Alzheimer’s for the last few years of her life. I know from experience that having someone you love not being the same person and having them forget things that they should know just because it is common knowledge. I am a Certified Nursing Assistant at a Nursing Home in my hometown, so I have been around a lot of this for a long time. I took care of my grandmother while she was in the nursing home, and I have found that it is easier to talk just talk about random stuff with them and go along with what they are saying rather then correcting them, which is what Karen, in the interview was doing with her mother.
I just found this whole interview and episode interesting. The long list of questions that Karen had are all the exact same questions my family and I had when my grandma was still living at home before we took her to the nursing home to live. Trying to put yourself in someone with Alzheimer's world, is very difficult. They were talking about how at first they were correcting their loved ones when they talked about weird things, and then eventually found that they just go a long with the crazy things they say, and live in their reality. When I work at the nursing home I have seen family members correcting their loved ones about what day it is, who is the president, what time of day it is, who they are, or just about where they are. I know that my family members did that at first also, but I remember telling them almost the exact same thing, and that was to just live in grandmas reality. It made things go so much easier instead of having her cry because she knows that her mind is not all their anymore. I always told them that she is happy in her own mind and to not get her worked up when she talked about grandpa still being alive when we all knew he was not.
Karen talked about how her mother would be nicer to her husband than to her, and I can relate to that because my aunt was the main caregiver for my grandmother. I noticed that sometimes my grandma would say things to my aunt that were kind of mean, but would be nicer to my dad if he said the same thing to her. It was kind of amusing sometimes, but I know in a way it made my aunt upset. Just like Karen said, maybe it is because my grandma thought my dad said it better than what my aunt said.
Something that I would like to learn more about is what actually goes on in someones mind that has Alzheimer's. I am so interested in people like this and I could spend all day with the elderly and people that have Alzheimer’s. I can not wait to learn more about Alzheimer's!

Terms Used: Alzheimers

This weeks episode Rainy Days and Monday was about a women name Karen, her husband name Monday, and her mother Virginia who has Alzheimer's. It was about Karen and her husband learning how to take care of her mom Virginia. Through some research Karen was able to find the best way to take care of her mom is to step into her mother's world. If someone with Alzheimer is talking about how their grandmother she is going to come visit them, but you know that their grandmother is dead do not tell them that she is dead and she will never come, play along with them and ask “oh when she will come visit you, or when was the last time you saw her.” If you say “oh she is dead.” that would hurt their feeling.

I knew about Alzheimer's a little bit. When I was in high school, I took sociology and out teacher had us do replacement and I got to go to a nursing home and I was put into an Alzheimer's ward. They gave me a person who has Alzheimer and I would go visit her for once a week. Every time I would go there she would ask me about my name, why I am their, what do my parents do. One time she asked me about a play I was doing and then five seconds later she asked me the same question and then when I was leaving she then again asked me the same question. So this episode reminded me of the person that I use to visit in the nursing home.

This episode gave me more facts about Alzheimer, like how every sixty seconds someone gets Alzheimer. Which I though was intersecting. It was intersecting to learn about how to take care of people with Alzheimer. I also like how they said that put a little details around the house like what date is it on a sticky note or any other devices to help them remember little things through out the day. Sit and talk about the memory they you all have shared throughout the years. I also like the way that Karen and her husband handled Virginia. I bet they went through a lot of ups and downs to get to where they are today.

Few questions that I have is, is there a way to prevent Alzheimer. Are there different stages for that disease and is it hereditary.

This week’s episode of This American Life talked about a family’s experience with Alzheimer’s. They have approached the situations that Karen, the narrator, talks about with her mom. When she just got Alzheimer’s she would try to correct her and say what was the real memories and situations were. This would only confuse and upset Karen’s mom and would cause tension. They started to approach the situation like an improvisation show. They would “step into her world” and this would make her laugh and be her old self. It was very hard for Karen to do, because she had to let go of the actual memories and accept this false one that her mom is actually remembering.
I relate this to when we talked about memory and thinking. When we talked about memory we talked about the types of memory. Karen’s mom could not remember her long term memories because of the disease. She had somewhat of a short term memory because she could hold actual conversations and play along with scenarios. Thinking is apparent in both Karen and her mom. Her mom’s thinking ability is affected because she could not remember having diabetes and would want to do things that would hurt her health. Karen has great problem solving, which is a part of thinking, by coming up with this new way of talking with her mom. This was very ingenious to me, because I have had family members with Alzheimer’s and I would have never thought of this.
My favorite part of the episode was when they would play along with Karen’s mom and improvise many funny scenarios. I thought they were funny, but also very helpful to have a good relationship with their mom with this disease that could tear families apart. Some people don’t like to visit their family with the disease because they don want to remember them in the way they are. This could make it enjoyable to them. It also reminded me of my grandmas, whose mother and sister had Alzheimer’s, and would really play along with them and always agree. She had great conversations and really connected with them. This I think is very important to them, because they don’t remember a lot of their lives.

In this world, there are people that try to swindle other people just to make a living in this world. They will do whatever they can so they do not have to work. For one company, they told people they had charges due and they needed to pay them or they would end up in court. The idea behind the company was that when they told the person to pay the bill they would have to decide whether to pay the bill or try to fight it in court. The people would just assume pay the bill and get it over with instead of going through the trouble of getting an attorney and going to court. In the story, the person saw the bill and wondered why he was getting it because he didn’t know where the charges were coming from. He looked back into his own records and couldn’t find them so he went to court to try and find out why he was getting these charges and how to get out of them. At the court room He was brought up to the stand and he asked the lawyer questioning him if they had proof of the purchases and the lawyer walked out of the room for two minutes, came back and said that they’d like to resign, allowing the man to not have to pay. The company does this in an attempt to get some free money but sometimes when the company actually needs the money and they cannot provide the proper paperwork, then they are out of the money. Sometimes it is to trick you into getting money but not always so it is best to go to court and straighten it out. This relates to the chapter because the intelligent thing to do would be to not be lazy and get the right people to help you straighten this out. It is also intelligent for the company to get the lazy people that don’t care because it’s a way for the company to be profitable.

Cassandra Rutledge
Magic Words

This is a good thing to know because my grandma has Parkinson's disease, which is similar to alzheimer's disease. The way they are doing the excersize is genious, allowing them to have their own reality. Playing along with the story or reality will keep the loved one connected mentally. Helping recall memories can help keep them connected as well. Sharing happy moments during the time you have together can allow them to enjoy having conversation and creating drama for others. People with dementia have a different way of thinking. The key words that are mentioned in the, Magic Words video, can be a symbolic representations. The mental maps can be fuzzy, like when they lady could not remember when she went to Florida, or where she was. Their reasoning for things can be confusing, but you just kind of have to create a situation out of nothing. You have to go along with what most of the things that they are saying. They do not always remember specific memories. In order to succeed in improve the caretaker has to be able to be creative and quick on their feet. The entire broadcast was interesting to me because of my relation with my grandmother and her alzheimer's disease. I would love to be able to learn how to slow down the processes of dementia and other memory impacting diseases.
Terms: demntia, symbolic representations, mental maps, memories, improve, alzheimer's disease

After listening to the radio blog, the aspects of this episode that can related to the previous chapter is memory. This episode of blog radio was discussing about a disease related to memory loss. An old lady named Virginia is the one who is struggling with this disease where she does not know who she is and has a mind of a little child this disease also known as Alzheimer's. However, she not really frustrated about her situation because her brain cannot function like a normal person and her intelligence level is similar to a five year old child, she does not have to deal with any pain, but the one that struggling are her daughter, and her son-in-law. When your family are having this type of disease, it is hard for you to take care of them and you have to be careful of every word your speaking and every action you take so you won’t make them upset. Alzheimer's not only the person who has that disease is struggles with it, but every member in the family are also having a hard time. The relationship between Virginia and her daughter is not going well, however, her son in-law is the only person that Virginia likes and the only one that Virginia listen to. Like I have mention, Virginia has a brain of a child so she only like the one that actually being nice to her and tell her joke, make her laugh. With this disease Virginia cannot recall anything in her long-term storage therefore her daughter became a stranger to her, and because her son in-law was actually the only one can make her laugh therefore she thought that he is her son and remembers every activities that he was involved and forgot about her daughter.
The most interesting topic was every 67 seconds somebody in United States developed a disease. I did not know that disease can develop that fast. And the most memorable thing I got out from this radio blog was how her family manage to form a strong bonding with her for example, her daughter did a little research about her disease, and then decided that she cannot say no to Virginia because it will upsetting her, so her daughter can only say “yes”, “and tell more” to form a good communication with Virginia and make Virginia think that everyone is interesting in her stories and want to listen more, even though everyone know very well about how her stories go.

Terms: Memory, Long-term storage, intelligence Alzheimer, forgetting.

This radio show about Alzheimer’s and dementia strongly relates to chapter seven in our textbook. Chapter seven is all about memory and the way our brain stores information, and this radio show is about a woman who has Alzheimer’s, which means that she has a hard time remembering and recalling information and memories. Karen, Virginia’s daughter, is trying to connect with her mother, and is having a hard time because of her illness. Karen comes up with a way to converse with her, but the downside to her method is that she cannot relive any of the fond memories that she has with her mother. Karen’s method is to live in Virginia’s reality, no matter how untrue or false it may be. Rather than trying to help her mother remember, she connects with her by becoming a part of the world her mother has created. They call this method improv. Most of the time, Virginia does not even remember that Karen is her daughter, which frustrates her because she sees how well her mother can “recall” Mondy (Karen’s husband) who was not even a part of her previous life. Karen often gets upset when she watches her mother engage with Mondy, because he seems to have a better relationship with Virginia than she does. The reason that they have a better relationship is because Mondy finds it easier to live in Virginia’s “made-up” world. He has no problem going along with her false memories, and it is more difficult for Karen because she struggles with the fact that her mother doesn’t remember her childhood, which in turn causes her to have to erase the memories that she has with her. This illness that Virginia has affects all aspects of her memory, including her short and long-term memory. In chapter seven we learned about different kinds of distortion in people’s memories, and it is possible that Virginia is experiencing some of those. Distortion is when our memory is flawed, causing inaccurate portrayals of past events. Virginia is experiencing memory bias, which is the changing of memories over time so that they become consistent with our current beliefs or attitudes. Virginia feels very attached to Mondy, and because of this, she pictures him in her previous memories, even though he is not there. This could also be an example of misattribution. Misattribution is when someone misremembers the time, place, person, or circumstances involved with a memory. I found this radio show very interesting because my grandpa has Alzheimer’s, so I know how it feels to be Karen. Everyone in my family struggles to connect with my grandpa because his mind is in another place. He does not remember our names or who we are. There are days when he can remember, and days when he simply can’t, and it is very difficult to see someone go through something like that. At first, his Alzheimer’s was minor, but it eventually became more and more severe. I remember the day that I realized his illness was getting worse. My mom and I were at my grandparents’ house, washing dishes, and my grandpa walked in the kitchen, looked at my mom and said, “your mother doesn’t like help, you know that.” My mom told him that she didn’t mind, and he walked out of the room. About five minutes later he came back into the kitchen and said, “your mother doesn’t like help, you know that.” It isn’t easy to watch someone you love forget almost all of the memories that they have. After listening to this radio show, I am going to try a different approach with my grandpa. I am going to try to be apart of his reality, instead of trying to get him to be apart of mine.
Terms: Alzheimer’s, dementia, memory, improv, short-term memory, long-term memory, distortion, memory bias, misattribution

This episode starts off with the memory or thinking aspects of the mind. It so very often is affected by conditions, Alzheimer’s in this case, that take away many aspects of the thought process in many people’s lives. This lady gives the example of how her mom new some stuff about a trip to Florida awhile back, but forgot the most important thing of meeting her husband. Step into their world is something that they wanted Karen to try in order to feel her mother’s pain. When Virginia sees monkeys, you see monkeys and carry on the conversation like you see them as well. This is a form of habituation in the way that Karen and the other family members are in the real world, but their mother is in a fantasy land. Sometimes you don’t need to respond to the outside factors that influence their thinking, but it is also good to acknowledge them, play along with them, maybe get them thinking even more about what they are thinking about and then maybe realize it. The other form is sensitization. This is applied when, according to the book, when an individual is exposed to a stimulus for long time, or many times, and then has an increased heightened preparation to respond in an important situation where there is some harm or reward. It is used in this story when the dog is digging in the backyard and the grandma thinks it’s hilarious. The family explains that the dog is digging a mine in order to find gold. They play along with the mom and ask her if she wants to go on the expedition with the dog in order to finish the mine, they all laugh and continue to play along. At the end of this the mom with alzheimers realizes that the dog isn’t really digging a mine, but just digging in the yard like a dog would.
Terms: memory, habituation, sensitization, outside factors, influence

I’ve often heard Alzheimer’s and Dementia used interchangeably and while listening to this episode, I was curious what the difference was between the two and if there was any at all. According to the National Institute on Aging, Dementia is a brain disorder that affects communication and the ability to perform daily activities, Alzheimer’s disease is actually a form of dementia that specifically affects parts of the brain that control thought, memory and language. I found it shocking when Ira Glass mentioned that according to the Alzheimer’s association, every 67 seconds someone in the us develops this memory disabling disease. This act revolved around a specific family and how they’ve learned to live and connect with a loved one that has Alzheimer’s. I found it interesting how this family developed a way of reaching out to the mother, Virginia, by connecting what aspects they new about improve. They found that instead of trying to constantly correct her and force our reality onto her, it worked better to “step into her world”. It’s a type of validation therapy where you always agree/play along with the strange things one suffering from Alzheimer’s might say, which sometimes involves letting go of personal memories you may have once shared.

Virginia and others who have Alzheimer’s have difficulty with the retrieval process long-term memory and sometimes even short-term memory. I don’t think that it is necessarily that the memories are erased, but that she just simply couldn’t retrieve them correctly. I was reminded of the section in chapter 7 about amnesia, memory distortion, and memory biased. Virginia can’t access most of her long-term memories and when she does, they are often distorted or biased to how she currently perceives her world. For example, it was discussed in the episode that she often remembers her significant life events, but with Mondy there (even though in most cases he couldn’t have been). This is probably because of how close she feels to him, which seems to be a direct result of his willingness to go along with her “wrong” memories his tendency not to correct her if she says things that don’t make sense. He fits into her memory in a positive light now, so when she remembers parts of her life events it’s only natural for him to be interested into those memories as well.

I found this entire segment very intriguing because my great grandmother, with her old age and deteriorating health has trouble remembering things and holding conversations. I also remember my great grandfather laying in his hospital bed talking as though he we still in world war II and we (the people in the room wit him) were soldiers with him, we found it easiest to just play along when he would go through these spells. I liked the part where Karan talked of her mother saying she wanted to go home and that it worked best to say to her “Yes, tell me about your home,” instead of trying to explain that she was home. This strategy probably aids in some form of memory retrieval, yes some of the details may be distorted, but she seemed to remembering some things correctly. I would like to hear more about the lives of families affected by Alzheimer’s, but also I wonder if some people with forms of Dementia realize they have it.

Psychology terms: Dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, validation, therapy, memory retrieval, short-term memory, long-term memory, distortion, memory biased, amnesia, perception

For this blog post I listened to Act 2 of episode #532 of This American Life called Magic Words/ Rainy Days And Mondays. It was about a woman named Karen Stobbe and her husband Mondy and Karen’s Mother Virginia. It talks about how Karen discovered how improv is very useful in communicating with her mom who has dementia. Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia. Dementia is a term that describes memory loss and a wide range of symptoms. In this episode Virginia would sometimes forget Karen was her daughter as well as mix up certain things around the house. Instead of becoming angered Karen would just use improv. She would play along with whatever Virginia was thinking. It saved a lot of anger and hurt feelings. Something to help slow down the process of something such as Alzheimer's would be to help your perspective memory by putting things such as sticky notes with labels on them around the house. It would almost be similar to learning again for the first time. The first of the memory to go is the long term memory with Dementia because it is hard enough keeping short term memory in. It would be a very hard thing to cope with but I’m sure many can improve the quality of the rest of their live by using improv to combat the disease such as Karen did for Virginia.
The thing I found most interesting from this episode was the fact that they did use improv to combat the disease. What makes it so interesting is that it is such a simple solution. Karen and Mindy just began living life around Virginia as an improv which meant living her way of life instead of trying to keep Virginia with them in the real world. I think that is a very nice and selfless thing to do. It would definitely save a lot of frustration and heartache by simply letting them live the way of life that they know. It would keep them a happier person and a more comfortable person letting them liv e in their own little world.
I would like to learn more about Alzheimer's and how we could work to prevent it from happening or treating it when it does happen. Is it caused by or in certain parts of the brain? There has to be some way to strengthen your brain or keep it strong to prevent getting things such as Alzheimer’s. It can be a very scary disease because once it sets in there is no turning back. It is the type of disease that only goes downhill. I would also like to learn more about why and how Alzheimer’s effects memories in the way that it does. It’s a sad disease and its very sad watching people have to go through it and deal with it.

Terms used: Memory, Alzheimer's, Dementia, Perspective Memory, Short term memory, Long term memory

We all, no matter what condition or disease we have, we all are intelligent. We all have something we can think about and that is what makes us intelligent. We all have a different thinking process. As talked about in the radio show the lady suffered from dementia. Even though she does not remember many things she still intelligent. I think that this lady is emotionally intelligent because of her ways of talking to people. She is always asking people questions simply because she does not remember things she used to.
Another person who I think has emotional intelligence is Karen. Her mother with dementia recalled she remembered strawberries from back home. Karen knows she can’t say anything about growing up in Texas, where they were from, because she doesn’t want her mother to not remember the things and she wants her to be happy. Karen finds her intrapersonal intelligence by not letting herself take over her mind because she knows if she does it might not be what she expects from her mother. It is also an interpersonal intelligence because of what she does say and what she doesn’t. Her husband and her have adapted a skill to help them communicate with her mother.
Karen’s mother is also intelligent because she recalls things that were in her past. One of the things she says is that Karen’s daughter is hers. I think that she says this because she knows she has a daughter and she is recalling her granddaughter as her own. While it is because of her dementia that she thinks this but she does have the memory and intelligence of her past but thinks it is right now.
I found it interesting that her mother was recalling certain things from the past and associating them with the present. Even though her dementia was causing this it showed she still had a ton of intelligence of what she was thinking and what she had remembered.
I would like to be able to learn more about dementia and how it affects the mind and how we think. I think that it is interesting about the things she is remembering and how they are remembered. I wonder how they remember some things and don’t remember others. Like what was it that made her remember strawberries from back home? It is a mystery to me and I would like to find out more about how dementia works.
Key Terms: intelligence, emotionally intelligent, intrapersonal intelligence, interpersonal intelligence

The Rainy Days and Mondays episode of This American Life talks about dementia. Specifically of Virginia who has dementia and is being taken care of by her daughter Karen and Karen’s husband Mondy. Some aspects of this episode relate to the part in chapter 4 that talked about how the mental abilities of an adult can begin to decline. In the book it talks about how an adult’s cognitive abilities begin to decline earlier than we think. Apparently the frontal lobe, which plays a big part in memory, typically begins to shrink some as you get older. Also, our mental speed slows as we age and as you grow older you aren’t usually as sensitive to things like sight and sound which also plays a part in the decline of memory. For me, the most interesting thing I learned from this episode was that despite what people tell you, you can have a relationship with your loved one that has dementia. All you have to do is put yourself into their world. The best way to do this is through improv. This means that you don’t say no, you say ‘yes and’ and go along with their own state of mind. The fact that Mondy was able to really connect to Virginia by talking with her about the dog she saw in the back yard and telling her it was digging their very own mine and also by distracting her from that second bowl of ice cream by telling her how good it looked and letting her offer it to him instead of saying she can’t have it. All these things are pretty remarkable! Personally, I love improv! I have been involved with improv groups for many years and I see why it applies to this situation because it is adaptable and quick just like the mind of a dementia patient. I hope I never need to use it with my loved ones but if that were the case I’d definitely try it. One thing I’d like to learn about is why it seems like certain people have more of a chance to get dementia as opposed to others. Is it genetic or is it determined by our environment? Some psychological terms I used were dementia, mental abilities, frontal lobe, memory, and adaptable.

Dementia is a disease which affects intelligence, memory, personality and emotional life. Dementia may occur in association with other diseases and will generally disappear when the underlying condition is treated. However, often Dementia is the root, stand-alone problem, and it is progressive. Dementia evolves over several years, where the patient becomes increasingly forgetful, confused and undergo personality changes. Even simple tasks at home can be difficult to perform, and more and more external care and support becomes necessary. Dementia affects mostly elderly people. Six percent of people over 65 years and twenty percent of people over 85 years suffer from the disease. However, it is very important to remember that the vast majority of older people are mentally well functioning. Many older people are worried about developing dementia when they forget things, but a slight weakening of short-term memory is quite normal in later years. Although the risk of dementia increases with age the disease might also strike younger persons. This is then called pre-senile dementia and is almost always the type Alzheimer's. The incidence is typically one for every 1.200 persons. The first symptom of dementia is usually weakened short term memory. We forget what has happened hours or minutes ago, but have no trouble remembering what has happened years ago. This may be the only symptom for a long time, and it is perhaps only the affected themselves, who are aware that something has changed. That lesson may be hard, and there will in the first phase of dementia be much frustration and sadness with some developing depression. Since this can worsen the symptoms of dementia treatment is important at this stage. Later in the progression the patient is no longer aware of the condition which might help the patient but make is all the more difficult for the next of kin. After some time, the surroundings may notice that the patient is more hotheaded and irritable, has easier to tears or appear absent minded and with loss of initiative. This is evident in the radio show with the mother. There are many dangers associated with living alone for dementia sufferers. Besides skipping meals and personal hygiene lit candles may be forgotten, the stove might be left switched on, etc. Relatives must be alert and early contact the social services or home care to secure the necessary support. In the broadcast, Mundy show ways to deal with persons with Alzhiemers or Dementia. Using the “put yourself in their world” method, a sort of acting way to deal with the mother really helped in dealing with these issues. My grandfather, before he passed, had fell victim to Dementia. It was really hard on my mother and aunt taking care of him because they had never dealt with the disease before. The most interesting part of the show was how Mundy would interact with his wife mother. Making her laugh and just the way he made her comfortable. I would like to learn more about the prevention of Alzhiemers and Dementia. Terms: Dementia, Alzhiemers, Intelligence, Short-term memory.

This podcast was all about memory, losing it, and how to communicate with someone that has lost their memory. Dementia is a decline in mental ability severe enough to interfere with daily life. Karen and her husband Mondy moved Karen’s mother in with them because she has dementia. Her mother often doesn't remember that Karen is her daughter, or that she has a grandchild. Virginia can't recall memories in her long turn storage. Virginia’s dementia affects her three-part memory storage system. It affect the sensory storage, short-term storage and longterm storage. Chapter 7 is all about memory. She cannot re-access her long term memory because in a sense it is gone. Her working memory doesn't work. A working memory is an active processing system that allows manipulation of different types types of information to keep it available for current use. It isn't available to her anymore. She cannot access it. Virginia has what is called Alzheimer’s. It is based on memory and what the person remembers or forgets. Alzheimer’s creates blockages between neural transmitters. The neurons die which effects in losing that connection to the brain.
I thought that it was interesting to learn that you do not try and tell a person in these situations what is actually happening. You improv with the person. You put yourself in their point of view to communicate with them. Instead of saying no to everything you alter it. You say “Yes and..” whatever needs to say. An example was when Karen’s mom wanted to go home she didn’t say this is your home now and show her around. Instead she said “Yes and tell me about home.” This way she avoided the topic but did not tell her no. You create a world that they are in and join them. Like telling her mom that she has to go mining in the back yard and make a fun joke out of it. That way everyone in the family was on the same page in the joke and in her world.
I would really like to learn more about individual’s stories. To me it is fascinating to hear how people adapt to the life style of living with someone who loses their memory. I wonder if eventually there will be a cure or a drug that can recall those memories for with with Alzheimers/ Dementia. To me in todays world its crazy that we can do some many things but we cant find cures for things that really need it. I think we waste a lot of time on things that are pointless when there is more important things out there in this world. I really would like to know if they are working on a drug that helps people remember.
Terms: Alzheimers, dementia, cure, neural transmitters, connectiom, memory, working memory, sensory storage, short term memory, long term memory, blockage, brain, drug

10/15/14

“What do we talk about?” A question that is asked by many who suffer from relation to a individual with alzheimer's or dementia. This recording answers that question very clearly: Talk about whatever it is that they, the person with dementia, wants to talk about. You must learn to “step into their world” as the recording describes. You must use tactics of improv to connect with this individual. Use the “yes, and…” technique.
In this recording listeners are introduced to a family who deals with a relative who has dementia. Karen’s mother, Virginia, is the one suffering from dementia, but she is definitely not the only one in the family suffering from it. Karen and her daughter start to get on Virginia’s nerves as they keep telling her that she is wrong. They keep trying to let Virginia know of the real memory she had. However Virginia absolutely adores Karen’s husband, Mondy. Mondy has been an improv actor for awhile. He learns to have fun creating stories with Virginia like working at a coalmine. She always uses the phrase “poor Mondy”. Karen is soon forgotten completely by her mother. Karen is jealous of Mondy as he has a better relationship with her own mother. Virginia even places Mondy in all of the memories that she still has, even if he wasn’t there.

There are many aspects of this episode that relate to this week’s chapter of thinking and intelligence. One major topic discussed in this chapter is decision making. Using this approach of improv to connect with an individual with dementia allows the individual to make the decisions rather than yourself. The individual will often set up problems that they will then have to solve if you are using the “Yes, and…” technique. Virginia had to decide that they couldn’t keep a monkey in the house. Typically it is a good idea to get individuals with dementia thinking and exercising their brains. The chapter also has a segment that discusses working memory and intelligence. One way to possibly catch dementia early on is through the use of memory tests. It would be beneficial to have an individual take a test as they are aging. If test scores drop then that could possibly be a sign of dementia.

A very interesting portion of the episode discussed was the day-to-day boring experiences with family members. The episode explains how families often are recalling old memories at gatherings. This often happens at the dinner table. I then thought about this within my family and it is definitely relevant to us. Maybe simple improv games and creative story forming would be more entertaining than discussing old memories that were more exciting than the time at hand.

Psychological Terms: Memory, Forgetting, Improv, Dementia, Alzheimer’s, Decision making, Memory tests.

This episode hit pretty hard home for me. My great grandma has Alzheimer’s and it is quite difficult to talk to her. I can especially tell that it is quite difficult for my father to talk to her. It is very hard to talk to her because she doesn’t know who I am. She knows who my sister is, my father is, and who my grandma is, but not me. It is hard because they have to talk to about who I am, and what I like. I’m usually the one strange kid in the corner. It is fun to listen to her when she talks to my other family members, about her past. Now this genetic mutation within the brain is not a random mutation within the allele of a gene. It is passed down from generation to generation through meiosis. This would say that this is person is not intelligent, because they are intelligent people, they just have a loss within the neurological synapses where some of them do not connect anymore, or as well as they used to.

I thought the radio post this week was very interesting. It’s about a woman named Virginia, who has the disease dementia, and how her family deals with it on a daily basis. It’s such a problem that her family members can’t say no to her at all, otherwise she would become angry. The fact that she’s the mother too is hard on everyone because the Mom is usually supposed to be the peacemaker and nice towards everyone. Karen, her daughter, said that she has never seen such strong emotions come from her mother in her entire life. The game plan that took place for the family members was creating a system which made them let go of memories they had, that the mother would never recollect. They had to base their life towards her and step into her world, so she could be happy. Luckily, I can’t relate to this because none of my family members have been plagued by this disease. I can’t imagine how troublesome it can be for families, which is why people should feel grateful for having family members with good health.
There are several terms and ideas from the book that tie into this radio post. What comes to my mind is Chapter 7, where it dealt with the loss of memory. It also touched on explicit memory, episodic memory, and semantic memory. These are types of memory that are stripped away from people suffering from Alzheimer’s. Once a person loses their memory, there’s no going back, and that’s the sad thing about it.
What I found interesting was the idea of memory illnesses like Alzheimer’s and dementia. It’s interesting and unfortunate that people can lose God given abilities like decision making and problem solving because of these diseases. I can’t think of a whole lot of things being worse than having a loved one slowly lose their memory because of a disease, which is why I wish a cure would be found soon for these illnesses that trouble many families all around the world. Another thing I’m interested about is how do these diseases just happen? How can someone just be stripped of their memory collection from their brain storage? These questions I now wonder about after listening to this radio post.
More things I wonder about and would want to learn more of is where is the best place for a person with Dementia to live? Is it better for people with this disease to live in a place they already know or in a different place? Do all patients show symptoms prior to getting it or can they go unnoticed?

This show was very humbling for me. I have never had a personal experience with Alzheimer’s, so I didn’t truly understand any of the struggles that the family faces. I had always thought the best way to help reduce the effects of Alzheimer’s was to reinforce the true facts of reality. However, I am very familiar with improve, and the “Yes, and” concept seemed like a very straight forward answer. I thought it would help bring old memories back, but instead it created new ones. This reminds me of the “recovered” memories from last week. Even though most of the memories that were “recovered” weren’t real, the people began to believe that they were real. Even though those memories caused distress in those patients, it can be helpful in Alzheimer’s patients. It can help the patients feel like they have a grasp of their world. When they are constantly being called a liar, reality can be a tricky thing. People are constantly telling you that everything you thought was real, is not.
The explicit memory of long-term storage plays a huge role in the development. It impacts learning, such as conditioned responses, habituation and sensitization. Patients with Alzheimer’s cannot remember the experiences they had, or the lessons that they learned from them. Associative learning would also be affected. Connections between pieces of information would be lost in the memory.
Alzheimer’s also plays a huge role on the families of the patients. As Karen described, the best thing she could do for her mom is to let go of all of her memories and replace them with her mother’s synthetic memories. It would be very difficult to make the decision to be faced with the choice to either lose her place in her mother’s life, or let go all of her memories with her mother. Both options have hard consequences, which is why Alzheimer’s is so devastating to the families.
The new way to handle Alzheimer’s patients makes life easier for the patients, but can be troubling for the families who have to replace their memories.

Psychological Terms: memory, learning, habituation, sensitization, conditioned response, long-term storage, development, associative learning.

When listening to this post, I can relate to this post because my great grandpa had dementia and I remember it being really hard on not only my mother, but my grandma too. I had another great grandma who also had dementia and she would forget a lot things and it would be frustrating. I also remember them not being very nice and would become irritable from their dementia. I learned from these experiences and from the show that you are just supposed to agree with the person because if you don't it will just confuse them more. Dementia and Alzheimer’s are both serious mental disorders and there isn't really much you can do about them and it is very sad and traumatic for the family who has to deal with people who have these disorders. I’m sure there is some therapy techniques that can be done, but other than that nothing really can be done.
Something that I would like to learn more about would be if scientists are finding effective treatments for these mental disorders because it is a very sad and traumatic thing to deal with and see that your loved ones are forgetting who they are and even who you are. I would also like to learn what some of the signs of this are and see if I can see it in my grandparents that are still alive today.
I thought the whole radio show was really interesting overall and I liked that I could relate to it in my life with my own family members.

Some psychological terms that I used were Dementia, alzheimer’s, mental disorders, therapy techniques,

This week’s episode was about a lady who suffers from dementia. I personally do not know anyone with dementia, so it was harder for me to relate to the discussion, but I can imagine that it would be really hard to deal with, especially if someone you were really close to suffered with it. I thought it was really interesting hearing about how people cope with it and how improve can play a legitimate role in relationships. I really enjoyed hearing that because I participated in speech in high school and I really support performing. Although this is not necessarily the most ideal situation to perform in, it is really cool to see performing come into play in real life situations, not just on the stage or in a competition. I would have never guessed that it would be used like this when I was a performer. I also never have thought about how when you are explaining to someone who is suffering from dementia, that they understand it as you are telling them that they are wrong and that they are lying. You just have to go along with what they say and twist the conversation so it is less accusing. I made a few connections with chapters and subjects that we have already learned about this semester from Psychology in Your Life, for example, how mental abilities suffer as we grow older. This section talked about dementia specifically, and how everything that we do can influence our development. I was unaware of how many people experience dementia until this class. I would have never guessed that it is so common in older adults. On the other hand, older adults have less physical, mental, and emotional problems and many of them are very happy. It seems like late adulthood goes strongly one way or the other as far as health. There isn’t a lot of room in the middle. Another subject that came to mind was memories. It is crazy to think that we are living this life and that one day we might just wake up and all our memories will be gone: long term, short term, everything. We obviously forget some memories, but I can’t imagine losing all of them, especially when it came to not even recognizing my own family. I was really impressed with how the people in this episode were able to deal with the lack of memories. I thought it was weird how sometimes she remembered things that seemed like they should be irrelevant compared to the things that were forgotten. Although I have learned a lot from this episode and the readings from the book, I think it would be interesting to go deeper into dementia. I think it would be interesting to learn more about other mental illnesses that people struggle with every day. It is really easy to apply subjects like this (even if it doesn’t apply directly to me) to life because any day I could wake up and have something life altering like this happen. You never know what the future holds, so I think it’s good to be informed and aware. Overall, I really enjoyed learning about this, even though it wasn’t necessarily the most pleasant thing to think about it. I will most definitely be researching deeper in the future.

Terms: Dementia, Development, Physical, Mental, Emotional, Memories, Long Term, Short Term, Forget, Mental Illness

I was unaware and surprised that every 67 seconds someone develops a disease. I found this entire episode interesting. It gave me real insight as to how to live and take care of someone with Alzheimer. In chapter four we learned about what dementia is. Dementia is a loss of brain function that occurs with certain diseases. It affects memory, thinking, language, judgment, and behavior. According to the book symptoms of Alzheimer's are typically minor memory impairments, but the disease eventually progresses to more serious difficulties, such as forgetting daily routines. However, to me this relates back to chapter 7 about memory. It reminded me about forgetting, blocking, interference and Absentmindedness the most simply because these are some things that normal healthy people go through on a daily basis; I’m sure on a more mild level. After listening to the radio, I think Mondy did the best with handling the situation and make life fun for that person and not always be so serious.

I am a waitress and there has been a couple of time where I have had older customers who have come in and forget that they are at a restaurant, forget whom they've come with or forget what they've ordered. For me this was an awkward time, I had only known this person for a few moments and yet they were asking me questions repeatedly about themselves, I had no idea how to answer. I just simply said whatever their family wanted me to. I understand that it must be hard for them and their loved ones to constantly go through each day not knowing what is going on or having to constantly explain everything.

As to what I would like to learn more about, humm I would have to say I’d like to learn how to better handle the situation for caring for someone with Alzheimer. Other than that I don’t want to stress too much about it. If it is something that I need to know I will learn when the time comes.

Terms used:forgetting, blocking, interference and Absentmindednes, Dementia, Alzheimer, Memory

This episode reminds me a lot of a previous chapter, chapter 7, which was a the chapter about memory. We heard about a woman suffering from Dementia and how those around the Dementia patient should deal and help with them. Dementia is a degenerative disorder that results in memory loss. This disorder deteriorates all parts of the brain because each part has a different way of effecting memory. This disorder (even though all of the information that is already stored in their brain, already encoded, and in for long term storage) is a slow deterioration of memory, whether it be short or long term.

Virginia suffers from Dementia and was being taken care of by her daughter, Karen, and son-in-law, Mondy. Mondy and Karen came up with an ingenious idea that when Virginia begins to talk about something that doesn’t make sense to them, they just pretend like it makes sense, agree with her, and somewhat perform improv to her. Karen explained to us that anytime she would try to correct her mother, Virginia would say hurtful words towards Karen, which wasn’t like her. On the other hand, Mondy would never correct her, he would just play along with it and make it into a joke. They talked about the monkeys that Virginia would see outside the window and Mondy would reply with acting like he saw these imaginary monkeys as well. Sometimes, Virginia doesn’t even know who Karen is because she can’t physically retrieve her memories of Karen being her daughter. They told the story about how the granddaughter was so upset that her grandma didn’t believe that Karen was her mom. I think it would be so upsetting if your loved one didn’t know who you were or how you were related to them. I thought it was very interesting to learn about how to help those with Dementia not make them feel as if they are an outcast. If I were to know someone suffering, I feel like I could be a better help to them because I know now not to disagree with them. If you disagree with them it could really aggravate them and make them feel like they are crazy. By playing along with them, you can create a relationship with them as Mondy did with Virginia.

I would really like to learn more about the root cause of this disorder because, as common as it is, I don’t hear much on how it begins or why it begins. I only hear about the stories the come from people suffering from the disease and how difficult it is, but not as much about the science of it.

Psychological terms: memory, long term memory, stored, encoded, dementia

This episode called Magic Words/ Rainy Days &Mondays showed about Virginia, a woman with dementia, and how her family deals with her disease. This radio post of this week was interesting for me because I also lived with my grandfather with the dementia when I was young. My grandfather could not memorize things from a long time ago, even my name and who I am. As well as, when he sometimes came up with something related to his past times, the memory was distorted or not truth. For example, my grandfather came from the North Korea when war division and his family live still in North Korea. Sometimes he said that his family lives in North Korea and he can go to the North Korea to see his family. That is, he could remind about his family, but he didn’t know about the division of the Korean peninsula. I think that this blog is related to various chapter readings that I learned in a book. The memory and thinking of various topics relates most to this story. The dementia is defined as severe impairment in intellectual capacity and personality, often due to damage to the brain. That is, dementia affects many aspects of the memory. As Virginia with dementia couldn’t memorize her present, past and what she see, dementia affects the types of memory such as sensory storage, short term storage, and long term storage. As well as, the dementia affects decision-making skills in thinking. When we make decisions, we use previous experiences to make decisions easily. This process of thinking is called heuristic in our book. That is, previous memory affects us to make decisions well, but if we have dementia we can’t memorize previous experiences and finally we can’t make smart decision making.
What I found to be most interesting for me in this episode was the way that her family deals with her dementia. Karen and Mondy realized a way to communicate with her by doing the ‘improv’ technique rather than correcting wrong memory. They would always tell ‘yes’ to feel her memory or thoughts right. They didn’t make her to be upset by doing ‘Improv’ because people with dementia get upset easily. It makes her to feel happy and to be healthy in dementia. I think this method is very smart skill.
What I would like to learn more about is the way that deals with better in the situation for handling someone with dementia. This is because when I lived with my grandfather with dementia I didn’t know the way how to care for him and couldn’t do well.
Terms: dementia, memory, thinking, sensory storage, short term storage, long term storage, decision-making skills, heuristic, improve,

For this assignment we listened to The American life radio station episode number 532 Act two “Rainy Days & Mondays”. In the start of the video they recorded an audio of a girl named Sharon who’s mother has alzheimers. Sharon had a sister named Caron who was watching her mother one day feeding her. All of a sudden Caron takes away a bowl of ice cream from her mother. The mother did not like the feeling of getting something taken away at all and she through a huge fit calling her a huge asshole. When listening to this audio I was thinking to my self that these out breaks her mother is having are almost the same compare to a little kids. I find it very similar because if you take away a kids favorite toy he/she is going to through a huge fit similar to the mothers. The mother’s memory has most likely vanished. She has lost sight of her information processing. The information processing as described in earlier chapters has three phases encoding, storage, and retrieve. All of these phases thought to be destroyed and not able to process correctly do to her disease. Even though her short-term storage is working she still has a huge trouble understanding her past, which would be her long-term storage. Listening to this audio the thing I found most interesting was when the wife and husband would talk to the mother that had alzheimers and agree with anything she would say so she wouldn’t get upset and start yelling. The reason I found this interesting was because it’s the best method to keep people with alzheimers happy and not upset. I would know this because I worked in a nursing home where there was a sweet little lady who had alzheimers she would call me her husband Jeff and of course I would have to agree with her and say yes I’m here. If I did not respond with a yes she would get very angry with me. One thing I would like to learn more is why this disease happens and the processes of it. How can someone just lose his or her own memory?

Terms: Alzheimer, Encoding, memory, processing, storage, retrieve, short-term, long-term.

Ricardo Garza
Some aspects of the Rainy Days and Mondays episode can relate to the the chapter readings that talk about communication. I say this because in this episode we see how people can interact and communicate with a person who has Alzheimer’s. We learn that we need to learn to communicate with different words that don’t make the person with Alzheimer’s feel like they are a liar or like that are less than you. I learned that you have to communicate with them as if they are speaking complete sense and basically “go with the flow”. With this we develop a situation that is fun. This episode relates with communication by how we must interact in the way that the person with Alzheimer’s in a way that makes them feel involved and interactive.
The thing that I found most interesting was the way that even though Karen is Virginia’s daughter, since she has Alzheimer’s, she has developed this love for Virginias husband Mondy. I think this is interesting because even though Karen was always there in Virginia’s life, Mondy has his form of communication and approach that gives Virginia the idea that he is this amazing person. I thought that Virginia’s love for Mondy was interesting as well. I think it is interesting because Virginia has actually inserted Mondy into her own long-term childhood memories. She has many vivid memories and for some odd reason Mondy is there. This is fascinating because there was no possible way that Mondy would have been there. She has inserted these memories but lost the memories of her own daughter’s childhood and also loss of who her daughter actually is.
As a whole I would like to learn more about what is actually happening in the Virginia’s brain when she is communicating with Virginia and Mondy. I would like more information on what the neurons are doing and how the brain waves are working for Virginia when being in contact with Mondy and Virginia. I would love to learn a better way to communicate with a person who has Alzheimer’s as well. I think with all of this information I can have a better understanding of what Virginia and Karen are going through. I think that knowing how the brain works can allow someone to speak and better the relationship with an individual with Alzheimer’s.

Terms: Alzheimers, Communication, neurons, brain, brain waves, long-term memories, memory, relationship

This relates a lot to the chapter that we read about memory. Virginia not being able to remember is like amnesia. It is like she has retrograde amnesia. The textbook says that retrograde amnesia is when people cannot remember things that have happened to them. This is kind of what is happening with Virginia. She cannot remember something’s that have happened to her. Sometimes she can though. When she does remember something the memory may not be right all the way. The textbook talks about distortion. There are different kinds of distortion. The kind of distortion that Virginia has is memory bias. Memory bias is when you make a memory match what you think. Virginia would remember something, but she would put Mondy in the memory.

What is interesting is that the things that Karen has to do are not what I would think you would do. She has to keep going with what Virginia says. If she says something wrong she has to keep going with what was said. This would be hard to do. I feel like I would get tired of doing this and not do it. Not doing it would not be good though because you would get less done. Like what we listened to the person who has trouble remembering would not be happy. If you keep going with what they say they will not be mad.

I would like to learn about how to deal with people who have problems remembering. It would be really hard to do it. You would say the same things to them a lot of times, but they will not remember it. I do not think that I would have the patience to do it. I would also like to know if there is a way to stop this form happening. If there is a way to stop this from happening I think that would make a lot of people happy. They would not have to keep saying the same things. I would also like to know if what Karen does works a lot. It seemed to work for her, I also kind of wonder why it works well. You do not make the person who has trouble remembering mad. I think not making them mad helps.

Memory, amnesia, retrograde amnesia, distortion, memory bias

This radio broadcast from This American Life was about a lad named Karen whose mother had dementia. Karen’s mother Virginia began to live with Karen and her family. Virginia greatly enjoyed Karen’s husband, Mondy. Right when Virginia began living with Karen and her family they had trouble with questions coming up all of the time or not knowing what to talk to Virginia about because she had dementia. Karen went on the internet to solve this problem. The answers that she got back from the internet that really clicked with Karen were the ones about it being related to improv and putting yourself in their shoes. She connected so well with this because she was an actress and Mondy was also an actor, therefore this related perfectly to their lives. They would go along with Virginias stories and pretty much everything she had to stay. This caused them to get along and be able to laugh instead of fight and argue.

I think this radio broadcast related greatly to the chapter on memory because with dementia the one thing that Virginia had trouble with is remembering. Dementia caused Virginia to forget many things, for instance, she forgot that Karen was even her own daughter. In the radio broadcast Virginia had forgot that Karen was her child and thought that Karens child was her own. Although this was wrong Karen let Virginia believe what she wanted because that was part of their plan that she had got from the internet. After this incident occurred Karen asked her mother, Virginia, who she thought she was. Virginia said that Karen was some child that Virginia had taken in and been taking care of her so she should be thanking her. I can’t imagine how being in this situation would feel, your own mother not knowing that you were her daughter. It makes me really sad when I think about it. I believe that this story relates greatly but along with that I think it deals with Virginias thinking as well because she strongly believe that all of these stories and situations she tells about are true. For example, Virginia got so close to Mondy that she started believing that Mondy was with her during her childhood, but he wasn't. Virginia started believing these false stories and incidents because her memory and thinking were altered. Virginia’s long term and short term memory both were affected by her dementia. Virginia would not remember to do something in the future if she told herself to because her prospective memory does not work as well anymore. Although Virginia has trouble remember things, retrieval cues helped her memory to kick in and talk about things of the past. For instance, when Virginia said she wanted to go home, Karen asked her what how was like and Virginia started rambling off about home. Retrieval cues helped her remember things because they are anything that helps a person access information in the long term memory.

Something that I found interesting was how Virginia could not remember Karen was her own child, but she believed that Mondy was part of her childhood. This is so interesting to me because having and raising Karen occurred before Mondy even came into Karen’s life so how does Virginia remember him more than her. I understand that she remembered him a lot and placed him in childhood experiences with her because she has grown so close to him, but it just astonishes me how this occurs. This is also what I would like to know more about. I would like to know how somethings are remembered but somethings are not when it comes to dementia like Virginia had. Which sections of the brain are affected the most by dementia is also something I would like to know.

I really enjoyed this radio broadcast because it helped me to understand what dementia is like. It helped me to realize what kinds of situations you may be put in when a loved one suffers from dementia. Overall, it was a good radio broadcast I just haven't had to deal with a relative having dementia yet, so some of the things came as a shock to me.
Psychological terms used: long term memory, short term memory, retrieval cues

I think that this episode relates mostly to the chapter about memory. Virginia goes through daily struggles because of her Alzheimer’s. She believes things and think it’s a different time period in her life than it actually is. She also has a hard time developing and using short-term and long-term memory. I can relate to to this because a friend of mine had a grandpa who actually had this awful disease and dementia. It was a struggle to see him go through it because his grandpa and him were very close and there were times that he wouldn’t even know who he was. It was hard to see that. The thing I found the most interesting out of the episode was how Virginia could barely remember who Karen was even though she had raised her but she remembered Monday as a childhood friend. It is crazy how much these diseases can affect a person. It really is sad. People have to learn and be able to understand that their loved one might not remember who they are or anything about them. Something I would like to learn more about this episode is how does these diseases affect the brain as a whole. Does it affect their ability to learn new things? I just would like to know if they can continue to learn and hold on to new information and the disease just affect the memory department of the brain. I thought this episode was really interesting and I’m glad I listened to it. I learned a lot about a disease that had an affect on a friend of mine.

Terms used: short-term and long-term memory, alzheimer’s, dementia, memory

I can relate to the episode in a few different ways. First of all, in my hometown I work in a nursing home and we have residents who have dementia. Before I could actually work with these residents I had to go through a course so I understood more about the disease. I learned how to interact with them and that if they say something they believe is true, I can’t tell them they are wrong. I just went along with the conversation and sometimes it lead us to talking about their life and what they remembered doing. Another way I can relate to this episode is from a time where I was with my great uncle and his wife. His wife had dementia and they came up to visit my grandma. I remember that some of my aunts and cousins were there at the time. My great uncle’s wife saw and stuffed dog and she thought it was real. I remember her telling my aunt that the dog needed to go outside to go to the bathroom. At this time I was about 8 and I was so confused because I knew that the dog was not real. I asked my dad why she was acting like that and he said she had dementia and was not able to remember certain things. Looking back on this after listening to the episode and working at a nursing home, I finally understood why she acted the way she did.

I think that chapter 4 section 4 relates to this episode. In the section we learned about how the mental abilities of adults start to decline as they grow older. Section 4 mentions that older people have more difficulty with memory tasks that require them to do many tasks at once. The section also mentions that dementia in older people is common. The book defines dementia as a severe impairment in intellectual capacity and personality, often due to brain damage. Although there are many causes for dementia, Alzheimer disease is the main cause in older adults. With dementia, people may lose track of time and forget what day it is, they may not remember their family members and deny knowing them, they also may forget simple tasks like how to get dressed in the morning. No matter what the person with dementia says, it is always best not to argue with them and tell them they are wrong. This could make the situation worse and it may take awhile for them to calm down.

I also think that chapter 7 on memory relates to the episode. Each person’s memory of an event is different. This is because each person may have a different to how they thought the event went. Short term and long term memory are very different. In short term memory, we are only able to remember a few items at a time. In order for information to be in our long term memory we need to encode it from short term to long term. A person who has dementia may not remember information in their long term memory. When they learn/relearn skills that information will probably be in their short term memory and not be encoded into long term memory. Some people who have dementia may be able to remember events that happened in their life if other people talk about it. This reminds me of the movie The Notebook. Noah and Allie fall in love and when they are older and in a nursing home, Allie has dementia. She does not remember anything about her life. Noah reads her a story about them when they were younger in hope that she will remember something. When she finally remembers who she is and who Noah is, they cherish the moment. Noah knows it won’t be long until she forgets everything.

One part of the episode I found interesting was how Mondy could talk to Karen’s mom and have a conversation with her. He was able to calm her down when she got agitated. When she woke up early in the morning he could always get her to go back to bed. I find this interesting because Mondy is not even her child. Karen is her daughter, but she can never talk to her mom. Karen feels that her mom hates her, although she knows that it is the dementia that causes this. I would like to know why this happened. Since Karen’s mom has dementia, why is it is that she communicates better with Mondy, her son-in-law, rather than her daughter. People are at risk for having dementia when they get older, but if younger generations learn how to communicate effectlively with their loved ones, the process may go smoother.

Terms: dementia, Alzheimers, short term memory, long term memory, encoded,

This episode of this American Life was very uplifting and I really appreciated the approach that the family and the company took on this topic of alzheimers. This is directly related to me because I remember when my great grandmother was around my mom had troubles communicating with her because of that basic barrier “what do we talk about?” I was younger at the time and honestly didn’t know that she had alzheimers so talking to her was no different than it was than when it had been for my whole life. This topic relates to so many ideas and concepts that we have already covered in class. We could even go back to chapter 2 and talk about the biology of psychology and this could apply to this subject. I am not that informed on alzheimers other than some of the symptoms, but I am sure that alzheimer's may have some sort of effect on just the brain itself. It could also affect someone's consciousness, I am sure that this idea of consciousness and understanding the world around us is very different when you have a disease that alters your memory and other parts of your brain. This also could easily tie into the developmental process in the psychological world. I would say the topic that probably most obviously relates to this topic is memory. In the episode they talked about how people who suffer from alzheimers no longer have some of this memories that they once did and what they do “remember” could not false as well. The thing that I found most interesting during the whole podcast was how they related to alzheimer's to improve and putting yourself in that person’s reality who is suffering from alzheimers. It think that is so smart because it makes a more comfortable reality for that person with the disease. This “technique” could also apply to so much more than just alzheimers and I think could be an effective idea to use in other subjects. What I would like to learn more about it alzheimers in general because I feel like the general population understand that the people who suffer from it lose part of their memory, but I feel like that is the extent of the knowledge. I would also like to learn more about how the caretakers are effected by taking care of a family member with alzheimer's.

Terms: Alzheimers, brain, memory, symptoms, consciousness.

This week's episode of This American Life, titled Magic Words, contained an interesting discussion about a family who has to deal with a mother with dementia. I think there are many aspects of this episode that relate to our readings so far. The episode really relates a lot to the memory chapter, as dementia is a memory related problem. Dementia effects both long-term and short-term storage. As was shown in the episode, Virginia has incredible short-term memory loss in which she cannot remember anything more than a minute. She also has a hard time recalling old memories, such as her not even being able to recognize Karen as her daughter and forgetting that Karen was even in her memories, deleting her from those memories entirely. However, Karen's husband, Mondy, is very well liked by Virginia and she even adds him into her old memories about boating and swimming. The best way for Karen to cope is to use Validation Therapy in which even if what her mother says is wrong, she has to acknowledge what she said and not try to correct what she had said.
The piece that I really found most interesting was the fact that Virginia had inserted Mondy into her last bit of precious memories yet she forgot who Karen was entirely. This is interesting because all the memories that Virginia had with Karen are lost but she now memories of Mondy, making Mondy a more special person in her mind. I can't even imagine how hard this must be for Karen. It's one thing to be forgotten by your mother, but when she takes your husband and inserts him into her precious memories it would be very hard to be understanding about it. I myself fear this happening to my own mother. My mom has been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis just as her own mother had been. It is evident already that her memory is slowly deteriorating as she sometimes forgets simple things like what I just said to her 5 minutes ago. Her symptoms aren't too bad right now but I fear they may get worse. I can't imagine having a parent with Alzheimer's or another sort of dementia like disease.
What I would like to learn more about is the science behind what causes dementia and memory loss and if there is any way to tell if you are predisposed, through your genes, to develop such a disease. I have always wondered how it would feel like to slowly lose your memories, the only thing you have to remind you of your greatest experiences. I would argue that you lose your humanity when you lose your memories. Without memories, what do we have? We have a made up reality. We are almost like an empty shell, lost without an identity. It's a very interesting topic that is very hard to understand because we have to put ourselves in the dementia patient's shoes, which is a very hard thing to do when we can barely imagine a life like that.

Terms: Dementia, Alzheimer's, LTS, STS, memory, Multiple Sclerosis, genes, Validation Therapy

Key Terms: Alzheimer's Disease, Memory, Brain

In this episode of This American Life “Rainy Days and Mondays”, they discussed Alzheimer’s and Dementia and its effect on people who are surrounding particular patient which usually are close relatives. We all know that older people tend to have difficulty with memory tasks that require perceiving and interpreting multiple pieces of information at the same time. Karen, daughter of Virginia, talks about her experience with her mother’s Alzheimer’s. They stated a statistic that every minute someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Continuing with Karen and her mother, Karen figured out a way to benefit the situation of her mother’s situation. Karen has experience in Improvisation or Improv for short. She realized that Improv and Alzheimer’s are rather parallel to one another, actually stating it in the episode. An example of Karen’s work with her mother was when Virginia, her mother, stated that she wanted to go home. Karen asked Virginia to describe her home. Virginia forgot about wanting to go home but she still thought about her home. Another example was when Mondy, Karen’s husband, decided to ask Virginia if she would want to work in the mines with him because they needed money to pay the bills. Virginia, laughing, said no and that she doesn't dig. They decided to stop the entire operation (that never really existed). This entire episode makes me think about chapter 7, memory. Alzheimer’s is entirely based on memory and what we remember or forget. Alzheimer’s creates blockages between neural transmitters. Neurons die, losing that connection to the brain. I have always wondered what it would be like to have Alzheimer’s and the feelings that I would have while people try to explain memories to me that I don’t remember at all. If I had a choice, I would like for someone perform Improv on me like Karen did to her mother. I don’t want someone to argue whether I am right or wrong because I have learned that this just makes things more difficult for the person with Alzheimer’s
Key Terms: Memory, Alzheimer’s, neural transmitters

This episode was about a women named Virginia who had Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's is connected to psychology in a few ways. First, it is related to memory because people with the disease have basically short term memory loss, the are very confused, and it is really sad. With the more severe cases of it people can hardly remember anything. This episode taught me a strategy on how to deal with it, If you use improv and just go with it then you will have a chance to make them a lot happier, even if they won't remember it tomorrow. It was very surprising how she could barely remember Karen, if she remembered her at all, and she had raised her. But she could remember Mondy and they were friends as children. That just shows how far back it can erase your memory. Alzheimer's is one of the saddest diseases in my opinion because your loved one cannot even remember who you are. I really hope that they come up with a complete cure for it in the future, because it would be so hard to go through.
Terms: Alzheimer's, Psychology, disease, memory loss.

With Alzheimer’s, ones memory and intellectual abilities slowly deteriorate over time. The few previous chapters relate to this radio show on the basis that they involved memory, thinking and learning. When we learn something the acquired knowledge is based off of our own personal experiences, which make up our behavior what intellectual skills. With Alzheimer’s our brain deteriorates and some of these personal experience are forgotten which cause those afflicted by the disease to have huge personality or behavioral changes such as Karen’s mother from the show who never swore before her illness but now would do it without hesitation. Lost along with these personality traits are person’s memories such as their long-term memory and our ability to recall certain information from it and the ability to affectively encode information for storage. This disease also affects a person’s problem solving and decision-making abilities that refers to the chapter involving thinking. Since Alzheimer’s causes the brain to deteriorate we also loose some of our intellectual abilities that allow us to perform basic skills that are used in taking care of ourselves in everyday life. Alzheimer’s is a very hard disease to deal with for both the patient and their family. Growing up my grandmother had a few strokes with over the years that lead to her to show signs of dementia. It was very hard on my family because we had to look after her because she was unable to do so herself. Eventually her dementia got so bad we had to put her in an assisted living center where they could better care for her. Eventually over time we would go to visit or pick her up for a holiday or a family weekend and she would seem extremely worried or upset because she didn’t remember anyone other than my mom. From my experience with it I can see how disturbing and difficult it is to have a family member go through all of that. I would like to learn a little more about the stages of Alzheimer’s and what happens to cause the brain deterioration. I would find it extremely helpful to look at the disease and learn about it a little more to get a better understand of it.

Term used: Alzheimer’s, memory, thinking, learning, behavior, long-term memory, recall, encode, storage, problem solving, dementia

The beginning of this episode talks about alzheimer's, and I immediately thought about my grandma. She passed away when I was in 6th grade and how hard it was the first time I went to go visit her and she didn’t remember who I was. I remember walking out of the room crying because I was my grandma’s favorite, and I couldn’t believe she couldn’t remember me. Alzheimer's is a horrible disease and I hope that someday soon there can be a cure. I’m also really into Friday Night Lights on Netflix and the grandma has dementia, and even know she was just acting it was hard watching sometimes because I couldn’t imagine how hard it would be taking care of your grandma, like Matt did in Friday Night Lights, who once had an episode about where her slippers were when the whole time they were on her feet.

I think it’s a good idea for caregivers to step into the world of the people they are taking care of when they are having an episode. No matter how hard it might be to want to tell them that they are wrong, you can’t because it will only make them more mad. I laughed when I heard the story about Mondy and Virginia and the monkey’s. He went along with the fact that Virginia saw monkey’s out the window, and he made jokes about her catching one and having it live in the house, and she was having fun with it. I think that looking at the situation as an improv act is a humorous way to look at it.

I would like to learn more about why dementia and alzheimer’s happens. What happens in the brain or body that makes people forget about major things that have happened in their lives? In The Notebook, Noah tries to bring Ally back out of her episode by reading her their story about how they fell in love and it happens near the end. I always get all teary eyed because I couldn’t imagine what it would be like for a spouse to go through that, it was hard enough as a granddaughter. I also want to know what the difference between alzheimer’s and dementia is and how doctors are able to decipher between the two and I want to know what part of the brain these diseases affect. I also want to know if people who have alzheimer’s or dementia are experience forgetting, or do they actually lose their long-term and short term memory.

Obviously we can relate aspects of this episode to the memory chapter in our book. But, there is a point in this episode where Chana talks about how Virginia actually remembers childhood memories with Mondy in them, even though he clearly wasn’t alive when these would happened. She remembers very specifically swimming with him, traveling the country, and Mondy compared her thoughts to the Forrest Gump movie, like how he was there for every big event in Virginia’s life. This part really reminded me of the distortion method of memory bias, when changing of memories occurs over time so that they become consistent with our current beliefs or attitudes.

This episode helped me view alzheimer’s and dementia in a different way. Although they are both very sad, we need to make the moments we have last, and if that involves making up silly stories about monkey’s in North Carolina, and a coal mining company in the back yard then so be it. Because sooner or later those conversations will be all that is left and then we can cherish them. I have never heard of actually agreeing with what crazy stories people of these disease’s have, but it makes having someone you love suffering from them more enjoyable to talk to because you aren’t constantly proving them wrong.

Terms: Alzheimer's, Dementia, Forgetting, Long-term Memory, Short-term Memory, Memory, Distortion, Memory Bias

Alzheimer’s is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease characterized by memory loss, language deterioration, impaired ability to mentally manipulate visual information, poor judgment, confusion, restlessness, and mood swings. AD usually begins after age 65, but its onset may occur as early as age 40, appearing first as memory decline and, over several years, destroying cognition, personality, and ability to function. Confusion and restlessness may also occur. The type, severity, sequence, and progression of mental changes vary widely.
From listening to this radio, I recalled a lot of information that we have covered in the chapters in our book. Memory was a big factor. It starts as a memory decline, so in this talk show thee women with the AD would be sitting on the porch reading the newspaper about the Beatles and say, oh I met them. She would forget that she had diabetes and want another bowl of cereal or ice cream. She didn’t remember any of her daughter childhood. She would ask questions over and over again, and not be able to recall the memory it was from. It is rather scary, and hard to deal with. When the memory loss gets worse, they may forget everything. Relationships, where they live, and so on. This is also known as dementia. It is caused by the progression of damage to the brain cells. In the radio talk show the women doesn’t remember a lot about herself, but about the husband of her daughter Mondy. She would only listen to the things he asked, and they said it was because he was not her kid, she didn’t have to process information about him, and she just had a better connection to the things he said to her.
Another thing I related it to that we have went over was cognitive learning. AD destroys cognition, personality, and ability to function. From the talk show radio, you can see she doesn’t know really who she is, her real personality, and it is slowly destroying her. She randomly gets up at 2 in the morning getting dressed, doesn’t know where her home is, because they moved her closer to the family, and she moved in with her daughter. She has no recalls of memory on her prior knowledge. She has no skills that are learned in the real world anymore, like personality, where you came from, how you were raised. She is losing her memory, and only listens to one person. Mondy.
What I thought was interesting was when they were sitting down eating breakfast and she wanted another bowl of cereal everyone tried to tell her reasons why she couldn’t, then Mondy asked and she gave him the bowl of cereal. It is so interesting to me that she listens to him, and remembers the things about him rather than her own family. It is crazy to think you can lose your memory of the people you already know, but pertain knowledge of someone you didn’t know all your life.
I understand the disease fairly well, but can patients that experience AD go insane by them not knowing anything that goes on, how it can be helped or it cannot. When you start to lose memory is there any way you can get it back.
Terms: cognition, memory, dementia,

This episode of This American Life was a really good one. My grandma had Alzheimer’s so it was pretty easily relatable. Rainy Days and Mondays was about a family that took their mother in when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. They talked about ways they were able to communicate with Karen’s mother. Karen’s husband, Mondi, was the mother’s favorite. He was able to get her to do things that no one else could, like go back to bed at 2 AM or not fight if they took away the ice cream after one bowl. The technique that they used was to not correct her when she said something incorrect, like telling her she was home when she said I want to go home, but to go along with it and have her tell you more about her home. I think she favored Mondi because he made her laugh so much and he approached her in a more friendly fashion whereas Karen seemed like she approached her more as a mother would. This episode is a lot about thinking and how that changes when one is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Chapter 8 talks about analogical thinking and how it corresponds to an image, and gives the example of a family tree. Showing a family tree to the mother in this episode would most likely mean nothing to her. She wouldn’t have any idea about who the names were branching off of her. Her memories are all discombobulated and often times they forget nearly everything. Long-term memories are mostly gone. She doesn’t know that Karen is her daughter, instead she thinks Karen’s daughter (her granddaughter) was her daughter. This episode also makes me think of the amount of stress Karen and her family were probably under while Virginia was living with them. Thinking back to when my grandma was alive, my mom spent the last 2 or 3 years of her life under a crazy amount of stress. I can’t even imagine having to take care of your mother and her having no idea who you were. That would be so emotionally draining and heartbreaking.
The part of this episode that I found most interesting was how much more Virginia liked Mondi than she liked her own daughter. That had to have been so difficult for Karen to get past. But then again, Karen was probably very thankful that she had someone who could get her mother to listen and do what they needed her to do.
I want to learn more about if they have made any progress towards a cure of Alzheimer’s or even if they can slow the process of it down. I know it is a very hereditary disease so it’s scary that is it in my blood.
Terms: Alzheimer’s, communication, thinking, analogical thinking, memory, long-term memories, stress,

This episode of This American Life relates to many chapters of our textbook and aspects of psychology. I think that chapters seven and eight were the most influential in relating and understating this episode about Alzheimer’s and dementia. The two differ slightly in the sense that dementia affects communication and performance of daily activities, and Alzheimer’s is a form of dementia that specifically affects certain parts of the brain that control thought, memory, and language. As these disorders progress, a lot of the knowledge of everything these people have ever known is altered. They need help with carrying out their daily activities of their daily lives. When you are taking care of someone in this state, you shouldn’t try to make them conform to your life and what you think should be their new life. You should try to live in theirs. From personal experience of working in a nursing home and caring for residents in the dementia unit, I see how it is even harder on them being put in a completely new environment, and expecting them to just keep on living their lives despite their brain disorder. I commend Karen and Mondy for taking in Karen’s mother and giving her the best care possible. Even though it is difficult at times, they are always trying to find new ways to make it easier not only on themselves, but also her mother. Her memory was affected the most from what I got from it. They did their research and learned what they needed to do in order to make her the most comfortable. They used validation therapy to validate that what she was seeing, thinking, and saying was valid to her. I didn’t get that her communication was affected that much. Even though her memory was regressing, I think the environment that she was in allowed her to make new memories each day no matter how long she remembered them. Listening to Karen and Mondy talk about their experience with taking care of her, they made it seem like she was fairly happy. At times she didn’t understand what was going on or why she wasn’t able to do whatever she wanted, but I think they handled it well. I think it’s interesting to hear a story on Alzheimer’s, and have it be a somewhat positive one. I get the feeling that in most Alzheimer’s cases, the family has a very hard time making the best of the situation. I understand that it is a very unfortunate thing to happen, but with Karen and Mondy they made the best out the situation they were dealt. I find this brain disorder very interesting, and I would like to learn more about it. I could find a lot of research that would be very beneficial in understanding this section in psychology.

Psychology Terms: Alzheimer’s, dementia, brain disorder, communication, knowledge, intelligence, memory, language, validation therapy

This episode called Magic Words/ Rainy Days and Mondays by The American Life can relate back to chapter eight; Thinking and Intelligence. This episode was about Virginia, a mother who lives with her daughter, Karen, and her son-in-law, Mondy. Karen and Mondy moved in with Virginia because her Alzheimer’s condition worsened. The Alzheimer’s condition has made the whole family change their way of interacting with Virginia, especially how to socially interact with her. Karen and her husband had to think of a new way on how to act around her and how to do make it socially acceptable in the eyes of Virginia. Social interaction is the most fundamental thing that you can have with someone who has dementia. Their new plan/thinking was that they had to step into the world of Virginias and never question what she was trying to say. This new plan was like improvisation, a theatrical technique that worked very well with Mondy and Virginia. Mondy was known as the funny guy who made a lot of jokes. His schema, which was given to him by Virginia, is his specific role that Virginia sees him as. He is only seen as a funny guy who makes Virginia laugh about random things that she does not remember. This is a schema because this is a specific role that was given to him by someone around him. Another relation to thinking was how Virginia’s analogical representations of objects were decreasing more and more on how the Alzheimer’s affected her. Dementia is where you lose your memory and analogical representations are the person’s mental representations that have a physical characteristic of objects that can be retrieved from memory. Since Virginia’s memory is decreasing so is her analogical representations, which makes it harder for her to remember physical characteristics of things around her.
This American Life episode can also relate to memory. This relates to the chapter of memory because of the definition of Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease affects memory, thinking, and behavior which gets worse over time. Virginia’s dementia has gotten worse and has affected her memory tremendously. Virginia has no relation to things around her. She doesn't even remember knowing her daughter, Karen. For example, Virginia was asked how she knew Karen and she said that she is just letting Karen stay with her and that she let her into her home. She had no recollection of Karen being her daughter. Virginia also made up memories from her childhood. She never remembered her husband so her childhood memories, which she made up, was all about her and Mondy. She put Mondy into her memories because she is always around Mondy now and the fact that she has no more memories.
I found it very interesting how she made up her own memories from her childhood and putting in someone who was never there. I also found it interesting that Karen had to Google rules for how to talk and interact with her mother. This shows that people are not fully aware of how to deal with dementia patients, especially on how to interact with them since they do not remember things. The last thing that I found that was interesting was how every sixty seconds there is a new development of a disease.
Psychological Terms: Alzheimer’s disease, Social Interaction, Dementia, Improvisation, Schema, Analogical Representations, Memory, and Thinking.

This episode of This American Life was very enjoyable. I really loved listening to the lady and her son in law. This was very important to me because I believe that this is something I may very well have to use in the future, though only 6.5% of 85 year olds develop Alzheimers.

To me seeing the concept of improv being applied to dealing with someone with dementia not only seemed to work better. It also seemed a lot less exacerbating, but it made it seem almost fun. It makes a lot of sense though, instead of making the problem worse just say yes, and? I believe this would be something I would have thought of if I were in the situation that the daughter was in.

Now obviously the daughter struggled with it a lot more because she wants her mother to remember her father, or that she is her daughter, or that her granddaughter is her granddaughter. Letting go of that memory and to see things though your mothers eyes and step into her world, would be very difficult. It is not part of human behaviour to want to forget things, especially happy things.

I would like to learn more about why Alzheimers, or dementia patients only remember parts of memories, and why they effect people in different ways, such as my great grandmother before she died, seemed to at some points regress to her childhood, asking for her mother and saying that she didn't want to go to school. Other times she could be completely fine, I want to learn why.

Terms: Alzheimer's disease, dementia, memory, behaviour

Rainy Days and Mondays
This episode covers a lot about disease in the brain. In Rainy Days and Mondays they talk specifically about dementia. The dementia of Karen’s mother has caused a huge change in their atmosphere around home. There are good days and then there can be bad days. They spend a lot of time talking about how the relationship between Karen and her mother has changed significantly. It is not as strong as it once was. When Karen was younger, her attachment with her mother had been very strong, but her mother’s memory has been distorted by her dementia. Her long-term memory, and even short-term memory do not match what actually happened. Since her mother does not realize that her brain is playing tricks on her, she gets very aggravated when Karen tries to explain what really happened.
It has forced Karen to live day by day, rebuilding a relationship because her mother has no recollection of the past. It causes stress on both Karen and her mother, and even Karen’s little daughter. The key that Mondy and Karen learned was to take each day as a new day, use improvisation. That is the only way that they can make things partially functional. Instead of trying to get by the memory biases that Karen’s mother has created, they play along with it.
I found it really interesting how the relationships were different between Mondy and Karen. Karen and her mother, who used to have good relationship, no longer did, but Mondy, who was practically a stranger to Karen’s mother, had a good relationship with Karen’s mother. I can only imagine how stressful that is for Karen. She no longer has the mother that she once did. I would like to learn why this is. Is it because Karen and her mother would argue about their memories, or is there more to it?

Terms: long-term memory, attachment, distort, dementia, memory, recollection, aggravated, stress, memory biases, relationship

I think being able to remember and memories is something we take for granted without really realizing it, I couldn’t imagine how hard it would be to not remember loved ones or something you’ve just done. It is scary hearing how common it is becoming and you or someone you are close to could eventually be affected someday. I think this episode made me think of the chapter from last week, talking about memory. Even though she had alzheimer's, she had trouble remembering things especially in the short-term memory but she remembered memories from years before. I thought that was a cool example of long term memory and how things can be buried and there are things you’ll probably always remember. It probably affects intelligence as well since you use your memory and previous experience to base off of things you are learning but if you can’t remember certain key pieces then it will be hard to relate and remember things you learn. I think it would be hard to really learn anything new after you get the disorder because it could slip away no matter how hard you try to remember it.
I think the most interesting thing is how she forgot her daughter’s names and even told her she hated her without realizing it was her daughter. It is sad hearing how frustrated she got when she could not remember she had to watch what she ate due to being diabetic. I think it was interesting hearing the stories and how they have to live. It really makes you think and realize how much you rely on your memory to do practically everything, your body does as well to move muscles and keep organs functioning. I think it would be really hard to be a loved one in the situation, it would be sad not having anyone to remember the good memories you shared with that person, it could probably evenutally cause self doubt. If they ask about something in your life that couldve happened before you were around or you don’t know because you never heard about it, then what do you do? Especially if it is something they haven’t told anyone about. You have to make things up, which means the person with the condition could be told something different than what happened. It makes them live a lie and have those missing pieces to cause you to lose yourself. I think it is sad people live like this and there is nothing anyone can do to prevent it or cure it.
There were some things I thought about during the show, I don’t know much about alzheimer's. After hearing the show I am now more interested in the topic, especially hearing how someone gets it every 60 seconds. Does it affect every part of the memory? Is there still a possibility you could rely on sensory memory to remember things when you smell a scent or hear an old song to bring back memories or trigger flashbacks? Does it feel like it erases your long term memory completely? Does it happen over night or is it something that gradually happens?
Terms used- alzhemiers, long-term memory, sensory memory, short-term memory, intelligence

Virginia faces the difficulty of facing dementia in the remaining years of her life, but even though she is the one with the disease her family and loved ones are just as negatively affected as her. Dimentia is a chronic or persistent disorder of the mental processes caused by brain disease or injury and marked by memory disorders, personality changes, and impaired reasoning. They give examples of Virginia displaying each of these behaviors. Virginia clearly has no memory, especially of who most people are. She used to be the kindest person who considered shoot a swear word, but she verbally abuses her daughter sometimes now. Also, she shows poor reasoning skills because she says she sees monkeys outside when there couldn't be any monkeys there.
This episode is closely related to chapter seven, the chapter on memory. Alzheimer's causes these symptoms because it blocks neural transmitters from communicating. Alzheimer's is the most common type of dementia. It affects short-term and long-term storage.
I was most intriguied by how Virginia basically forgot about her daughter's existence, but her favorite person was Mondy. She liked Mondy because he was able to improv the best with her because he was a theatre performer. People are taught to deal with Alzheimer's patients like they are acting in an improv because in improv you are told to respond with a "yes and" approach. The "yes and" response works well with them because the patients will become frusturated and angry if you tell them they are wrong, so if you agree and play along they are more likely to enjoy your company. It was harder for Virginia's daughter play along because Virginia kept making up memories that didn't happen and had no recollection of the memories of her and Karen. This made Karen have to give up the fun memories she'd had with her mother.
I'd like to experience dementia someday, but just for a day. I want to see just how frusturating it is for the patient because it must be just awful. I would only want to do it for a day though because I couldn't handle it for any longer.
Psychological Terms: Dementia, memory disorder, neural transmitters, short-term storage, long-term storage, Alzheimer's, improv

The talk show can be related to many different chapters and sections of our book. The first thing I thought to relate this radio show to was to the chapter about memory. I was able to relate this to memory, because the lady, Virginia, in the talk show had Alzheimer’s which is a type of dementia. Virginia’s memory was very unclear during this radio show. One thing that stood out to me was when she said she wanted to go home, but the lady taking care of her said she was home. The home the caregiver told her she was in was a home that she recently moved into. The caregiver had to go about talking to her about her home in a different way. She had to talk her by asking her what her house looked like what the rooms looked like, and other questions about what Virginia remembered about the home she used to live in. Virginia’s memory was so bad that she had forgotten Karen’s, Virginia’s daughter, childhood. She does not remember raising her. She told Karen that she was not her kid, but that Karen had no place to live so then Virginia took her in. She would not believe it to be that Karen was her child and that Virginia’s granddaughter, Grace, was her granddaughter and the daughter of Karen. I also found that the radio talk show might be related to the chapter about sensation and perception. The sensations that Virginia had were not normal sensations. Her vision for example was not normal. She was seeing monkeys outside and wanted to bring them into the house. Virginia’s family and caregiver had to make a rule for Virginia. The rule that was made for Virginia about the visions she was having were that the monkeys were not able to come into the house. Virginia seemed to disagree with the rule and question it for a while. The radio show was very interesting in the way that it shows from a family members perspective about what exactly happens to someone with dementia or Alzheimer’s. This radio show can also be related to the chapter development, because it shows how the development of old age can result in such a horrible thing.

Terms: Alzheimer’s, memory, dementia, development, sensation, perception

Alzheimer's is a tricky disease, and this episode of This American Life further proved that for me. I feel so fortunate to have not had a personal experience in my family with Alzheimer's, though I have heard from other people how hard it can be.

With this family that is followed in this episode, there is a woman named Virginia who has Alzheimer's, who is taken care of by her daughter, Karen, and her husband, Mondy. They use the "yes, and..." rule that is used with improv to try and help improve life for Virginia, instead of constantly correcting her which is very easy to do with Alzheimer patients. This is a good example of right decision making. If they hadn't weighed their options like they did and decide to live in her world, Virginia might've been even more alienated from them. However, she then began to reinvent some memories, placing Mondy in them. It reminds me of the recovered memory episode we listened to. She remembered powerful childhood memories but added Mondy to them. Her long term memory is almost nonexistent because it is so faulty, and it's sad. It would be very hard to make the best of the situation if you were her family. At least she is able to live in the present with her short term and sensory memory, and I find it interesting how the family is able to cope with it so seemingly well.

I would like to learn more about the treatment of Alzheimer patients and if we are close to a cure of any kind.

Terms used:
Alzheimer's, decision making, memories, recovered memory, long term memory, short term memory, sensory memory

This episode relates strongly to memory. According to the book, “memory is the nervous system’s capacity to acquire and retain information and skills. This capacity allows us to take information from experiences and store it for retrieval later.” Alzheimer’s unfortunately affects one’s memory, preventing people from being able to retrieve information from prior experiences. The episode also reminded me of learning. The text states, “Learning is a change in behavior that results from experience.” This stuck out in my mind because Karen and Mondy had to learn that trying to get Karen’s mother to recall memories did not work, and that it only put her into distress. After having learned this, the two changed their method, and learned again – improv works a lot better.

I thought that it was very interesting that Karen’s mother put Mondy into her very few remaining memories. It is very plausible that she could truly believe that he was there, especially after having briefly learned about recovered memory. However, it was strange to me that she decided this without any prompting or suggestion, as often is the cause behind recovering false memories. If we look at this from a reconstruction standpoint, this makes a bit more sense. Reconstruction can be defined as “piecing memory together from a few highlights, then filling in details on what we think should have happened”. Karen’s mother enjoys Mondy’s company so much, trusts him so much, feels so comfortable with him, that when she recalls portions of actual memory, she believes that he should have been there and fills in the memory by inserting him in it.

The episode briefly mentioned that experts are changing their recommended responses to Alzheimer’s from gently and consistently easing the person back into our own reality to simply agreeing and going into their reality. I would like to know why this is. More specifically, what is the reasoning behind this? Is it simply because easing the ill back into reality doesn’t work, is it because this is a less stressful option for the family, or is it because it can aid in maintaining the ill’s health?

Memory, learning, recovered memory, reconstruction

While listening to this episode of This American Life, I recognized some common trends between what was being discussed, and what I read in the chapter we were assigned to read earlier this week in our textbooks. One of the Things I noticed right away is that the show was about memory. Specifically I related it to Amnesia. When Karen is talking about her mother, she says that there are times her mom would say something like “Oh, this reminds of a time when…” and that statement would almost always include Karen, even though she herself knew that her mom had no recollection that Karen was actually there with her too. Hearing them talk about how they have to act around Karen’s mom was shocking to me, because I know for myself that it would be very difficult to hear my mother talk about things in her past that I was a part of but not remember that aspect of it, or even who I really am. Dementia is a tough disease to deal with especially when it is with someone who has been with you your entire life. The type of Amnesia that I believe is taking place in this specific case is slight Retrograde Amnesia. I say this because there was no trauma, yet what Karen’s mom is suffering from is much like Retrograde Amnesia in that she almost cannot remember anything from the past. One aspect that really surprised me was how detrimental Dementia could be if the person with it had no one to care for them. Karen’s mom for example often wanted more of something sugary, even though she had diabetes. The fact that she didn’t even know she had diabetes is scary because she could easily do something that could really harm her, or possibly cause her to die without even knowing what she did. It was hard to listen to because of how much of an affect it could have on anybody really. I’d like to learn more about how people go about caring for someone such as their mother. I know that in the episode they talked about how the couple used the idea of “stepping into their world” to better help the situation, but it was just said that the both of them had a great understanding of it already because of their experience with comedy. But, for someone who is not an experienced comedian, it is very hard to conceptualize how to go about doing this even with all the examples given. It would be interesting to learn more about how to go about saying things with the idea of “yes” without it backfiring on you later in the conversation. I enjoyed the topic, but it is also very striking because anyone has a chance of developing Dementia, so learning how to really do well in dealing with it would be interesting to hear about.
Terms: Dementia, Amnesia, Retrograde Amnesia, Memory

This episode reminded me of memory that came in effect by Karen and Mondy took care of Karen’s mother Virginia. They cope with Virginia’s disability by finding a way to communicate to her. I could not imagine myself taking care of a person with dementia also known as Alzheimer’s, because it would get harder and harder by the second physical and emotional. Forgetting their name and who they are will be the hardest thing to help with because they wouldn’t want to believe me; this condition reminded me of the movie: The Notebook. And he tried helping her remember by telling her a “story” that was actually their life together. Virginia had the mind of a five year old and had a bad relationship with her daughter Karen, because of her not being “nice”. Mondy was most liked because he made Virginia laugh and would play activities with her. Her long-term memory was gone mostly and she did not remember her daughter, but only as a stranger. The disease does not only effect the person who has it, but the entire family has well.
In conclusion, I learned a variety of information, but the most memorable was learning that every 67 seconds some is diagnosed with a disease. It shocked me of how fast it is and the ways of learning how to cope with what people have. Knowing that you are not the only person out there who has a disease is a positive and negative thing to know. I have enjoyed hearing these episodes and will probably listening to them more often after this class is over.

Terms: memory, Alzheimer’s, dementia, long-term and disease.

In this episode of This American Life the focus was on Dementia, specifically Alzheimer's. Dementia is described as a loss of brain function that affects memories along with other things. Alzheimer's is a from of Dementia that gets worse over time. I can relate to this because my Grandma and Grandpa have developed Alzheimer's and have trouble remembering things that they have recently done. The thing that I can relate to most is how Virginia gets angry at Karen for telling her that she can't have something or do something. My uncle, who has lived with them most of their life has been taking care of them for many years, and my grandpa gets angry at him a lot and they get into arguments over things that seem ridiculous. My grandpa might forget that they had gone to church that morning because of short term memory loss, and when my uncle tells them that they had already gone he will begin to argue with him that they didn't. So whenever anyone comes over to visit my grandparents, and my uncle are glad to have others to talk to. It is surprising though that they are able to remember most of our names because they have nine children, 24 grandchildren, and more than 35 great grandchildren and they only seem to struggle with the names of great grandchildren.
I think that showing this episode to my uncle who lives with them and others in the family so they are able to understand what they are going through and can communicate with them better.
I would like to learn more about the different types of Dementia so I can better relate to my grandparents and others in my life that are becoming older and could develop it.
Psychological terms: Dementia, Alzheimer's, Short term memory.

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