ASA - American Society on Aging

2002 Awards Programs
Recognizing Excellence in the Field of Aging

Award Winners

2002 ASA STUDENT RESEARCH AWARDS

This award is endowed by the AARP Andrus Foundation.

Kristine Williams, RN, FNP, PhD

Lawrence, KS

Dr. Kristine Williams RN, FNP, received her PhD in Gerontology from the University of Kansas in 2001. Her dissertation project, “Improving Nursing Home Communication,” tested a brief intervention to educate nursing home staff to reduce their use of elder-speak, a form of baby talk, to older adults. She is currently an assistant professor at the University of Kansas School of Nursing and has received funding as a John A. Hartford and American Academy of Nursing Building Geriatric Nursing Capacity Scholar to expand on her dissertation work in a new study, “Improving Outcomes of Nursing Home Interactions.”

Her study evaluated a brief educational program designed to increase nursing home staff awareness of their use of elderspeak and develop strategies to enhance communication with their older patients. The features of elderspeak include terms of endearment, inappropriate collective pronouns (“us” and “we”), and shortened sentence length. This style has a slower rate, exaggerated intonation, elevated pitch and volume, more repetition, and simpler vocabulary and grammar than normal adult speech. These infantilizing speech patterns may aid staff to unknowingly reinforce the dependency of the residents and engender feelings of isolation and depression. Studies have shown that social contact and support is important for successful aging in any environment.

Staff interaction with residents was recorded before and after the training program. The audiotapes were coded and compared in terms of discrete elements of elderspeak. The

system measured mean length of utterances, diminutives and collective pronoun use. Emotional tone was also measured, although further modification may be needed.

Following the intervention, staff were able to modify their behavior and use new communication skills. This study defines itself as a stepping-stone for future evaluations of communication training, and a call for higher awareness of the importance of healthy, respectful channels of communication with older adults, and describes its benefits to nursing home residents. This improvement is key to improving the quality of life for older people.

Honorable Mention

Tara Victor, MA

Lansing, MI

Tara Victor received her master's degree in clinical psychology from Michigan State University after studying psychology at the University of Kentucky as an undergraduate.

Her special area of study is neuropsychology. In her master's thesis, “The Role of Executive Function as a Mediator of Age-related Differences in Free Recall Memory Performance,” she explores the effects of aging on certain types of cognitive function, the mechanisms by which aging exerts its effects, and the variables that intervene in the process.

Ms. Victor investigated three mediators that affect the type of memory related to facts and events. These included executive memory (the aspect that includes the wide range of cognitive abilities involved in problem solving such as planning, strategic and abstract thinking, and self-monitoring); speed of processing information; and working memory, often referred to as short-term memory.

Two hundred and ten older adults living in the community received a battery of tests assessing mood and cognitive abilities. She analyzed her findings by separating the variables (regression analysis).

Interestingly, working memory was not associated with free recall, the ability to retrieve information without cues. Executive function and processing speed, together, significantly reduce the relationship between age and memory. The analysis results indicated age as not a significant predictor of free recall when these two mediators are taken into account. This finding is surprising in light of the long history of research consistently demonstrating a decline of memory with age. The finding could be attributed to the uniqueness of the sample or an underestimate in the variance of age. Future analyses should be made of the different elements that make up memory.