This paper describes changes to a model of reading comprehension to improve its reading rate and bring it into closer alignment with human reading rates. The broader context of the research is development of language capable synthetic teammates that can be integrated into team training simulations. To use synthetic teammates in team training without detriment, we believe the synthetic teammates...

The animal literature suggests that exposure to more complex, novel environments promotes neurogenesis and cognitive performance in older animals. Studies in humans indicate that participation in intellectually stimulating activities may serve as a buffer against mental decline and help to sustain cognitive abilities. Here, we show that across old adults, increased responsiveness to novel event...

We demonstrate the use of a probabilistic generative model to explore the biomarker changes occurring as Alzheimer's disease develops and progresses. We enhanced the recently introduced event-based model for use with a multi-modal sporadic disease data set. This allows us to determine the sequence in which Alzheimer's disease biomarkers become abnormal without reliance on a priori clinical diag...

The link between agitated behaviors and cognitive functioning in 408 nursing home residents was examined. Results showed that cognitively impaired residents manifested aggressive behaviors (e.g., cursing, hitting) and physically nonaggressive behaviors (e.g., pacing). The highest levels of physically nonaggressive behaviors were manifested by those residents who presented intermediate levels of...

WHY: There is no evidence that persons with dementia physiologically experience less pain than do other older adults. Rather than being less sensitive to pain, cognitively-impaired elders may fail to interpret sensations as painful, are often less able to recall their pain, and may not be able to verbally communicate it to their care providers. As such, cognitively impaired older adults are oft...

In mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS), glycosaminoglycans (GAG) accumulate in tissues. In MPS II, approximately two-thirds of patients are cognitively impaired. We investigated levels of GAG in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in different populations from four clinical studies (including NCT00920647 and NCT01449240). Data indicate that MPS II patients with cognitive impairment have elevated levels of CSF GA...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether multiple computer use behaviours can distinguish between cognitively healthy older adults and those in the early stages of cognitive decline, and to investigate whether these behaviours are associated with cognitive and functional ability. METHODS Older adults with cognitive impairment (n = 20) and healthy controls (n = 24) completed assessments of cognitive and...

BACKGROUND/AIMS The present study examined if knowledge of driving laws independently predicts on-the-road driving performance among cognitively impaired older adults. METHODS The current study consisted of retrospective observational analyses on 55 cognitively impaired older adults (77.9 ± 6.4 years) that completed an on-the-road driving evaluation, a 20-item knowledge test of driving laws, ...

The models used in social simulation to date have mostly been very simplistic cognitively, with little attention paid to the details of individual cognition. This work proposes a more cognitively realistic approach to social simulation. It begins with a model created by Gilbert (1997) for capturing the growth of academic science. Gilbert’s model, which was equation-based, is replaced here by an...

Generics are sentences such as "ravens are black" and "tigers are striped", which express generalizations concerning kinds. Quantified statements such as "all tigers are striped" or "most ravens are black" also express generalizations, but unlike generics, they specify how many members of the kind have the property in question. Recently, some theorists have proposed that generics express cognit...