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The purpose of this paper is to review and provide information on the small but growing body of literature that demonstrates that some people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) are unaware of the memory impairment, and this has clinical implications for how family members care for their loved one, and how clinical staff and others may interact with them on a day-to-day perspective.

The approach takes the form of a general review.

People with PD experience a variety of cognitive impairment including deficits in memory and higher level executive processes. Impairment in these areas can occur early in the disease course and result in adverse consequences including distractibility, trouble recalling information, and problems remembering to execute planned actions like adhering to medication regimes. The literature also suggests heterogeneity in both the memory performance of people with PD and in the definition of awareness used to investigate this phenomenon.

Strategies for remembering may be of practical importance for people with PD, and/or caregivers should be introduced and educated to the nature of memory impairment in PD, as well as its likely course and natural progression in a non-threatening way before they are later instructed on “tips” for maximising daily functioning as more severe cognitive deficits begin to appear.

This paper adds to the small body of literature that investigates patients’ awareness of memory impairment in PD and advocates for ongoing research within the area.

The creativity-based facilitation effect, well documented by previous research, shows that creative advertisements (ads) are more memorable than regular (or less creative) ads, that is, creativity facilitates memory. This current research aims to extend our understanding by investigating the impact of creativity on regular ads and competitive advertising. It examines whether creative ads impair the memorability of regular ads to determine whether a “creativity-based impairment effect” exists.

Three experiments were conducted. Experiment 1 tested creativity-based impairment effects in brand recall. Experiment 2 replicated and validated the impairment effect in recall, using a different presentation order of ads. In Experiment 3, effects of creative ads on competing vs non-competing brands were examined.

Results found that creative ads impaired the brand recall of regular ads, creative ads impaired the recall of competing brands more than non-competing brands and creative ads were recalled earlier in top-of-mind recall positions.

Future research may look at whether different memory measures (e.g. recognition), different proportions of creative ads, and ads of familiar vs unfamiliar brands produce differential impairment effects.

One suggestion from this research could be to not only copy-test your own brand’s advertising, but also test the advertising of other brands so that the target ad’s relative levels of creativity can be assessed before media buying. As a result of this testing, when the brand identifies any potential impairment effects, the identified creative ads could then be tracked in terms of media placement, providing a guide of where “not to schedule” advertising.

This research makes an important theoretical contribution as the first to explore impairment effects in the context of creative advertising. In doing so, it offers important managerial insights for regular and competitive advertising.

The purpose of this paper is to explore current practice, barriers and facilitators to identifying and responding to alcohol problems in memory clinics.

A questionnaire sent to professionals in 55 memory clinics in England, Wales and the Isle of Wight and two focus groups with professionals from three memory clinics in England.

Only 1/35 clinics that responded to the questionnaire was using a standardised alcohol screening tool but all attempted to gain some information about alcohol use. Without screening tools, practitioners found it difficult to determine whether alcohol use was problematic. Barriers to identification/intervention included cognitive impairment, service-user being “on guard” during assessment, presence of family members/carers, time constraints and a perception that brief interventions were not within the remit of memory clinics. Facilitators were obtaining visual clues of problem drinking during home visits and collateral information from family members/carers.

Focus group participants were recruited through convenience sampling and a small number of professionals took part. This means that the findings may be subject to selection bias and limits the generalisability of the findings.

Memory clinics should provide guidance and training for practitioners on how to intervene and respond to alcohol misuse. Further research is required to determine the most effective way to identify alcohol problems in people with cognitive impairment and how to deliver brief alcohol interventions that take account of cognitive deficits.

This is the first study to examine alcohol screening and interventions in memory clinics and identifies a need for guidance, training and further research.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate whether family caregivers with a stronger sense of coherence (SOC) who are caring for community dwelling older adults with cognitive impairment are less likely to use mental health services. An adaptation of the Anderson behavioral model of access to health care was employed as a conceptual framework. Data were collected for 304 impaired older adult/family caregiver dyads. Caregiver mental health service use and sense of coherence were measures as well as predisposing factors (age, gender, race, education, type of familial relationship, family size, and co-residence with impaired family member), enabling factors (self-reported awareness of services, travel times to mental health services, social support, and insurance), and need factors (chronic health conditions and distress). The impaired elder’s age, level of physical impairment, and level of memory impairment were also examined. Logistic regression results indicated that caregivers who have a stronger SOC were less likely to use mental health services (OR=0.91, p=0.006). Other significant independent predictors of mental health service use were social support (OR=0.34, p=0.032) and caregivers aiding family members with higher levels of physical impairment (OR=1.14, p=0.033). The results of this study support clinicians and planners developing mental health services that use SOC to mitigate the detrimental effects of caregiving. Future research is needed to target effective measures to positively manipulate this variable.

Cognitive self-rehabilitation lacks updated means and tools. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of cognitively simulating mobile games on the cognitive skills and recreation of older people with memory impairment.

Mobile games that require cognitive skills were developed. The games were tested by memory-impaired older adults, average age of 90. Gaming interventions took place for three months on a daily basis. Game outcomes were automatically recorded and user feedback was collected by interviews. The progress of the testees was also evaluated by means of Trial Making Test A.

Improvement in game scores was found. Other significant effects of game play were enhanced recreation and self-managed activity level. Game play did not have any effect on the traditional Trail Making Test results but the results of the Trail Making game showed improvement. The Trail Making game also showed a large variance in daily scores, which implies that performing just a single Trail Making Test might lead to misreading a person's condition.

The results are an encouragement for conducting further testing (on a larger test group, over a longer time) and continuing with game development for cognitively impaired older adults. A similar game trial will also be arranged for a younger population with better overall health condition.

New business opportunities are also possible in game development and gaming services.

Games have the potential for self-rehabilitation and to support extending independent living at home.

The paper provides a synopsis of novel cognitive recreation tools, an analysis of their effect and user feedback from professional staff as well as potential new ideas for game developers.

Cognitive decline and dementia are major causes of disability. Research has suggested a relationship between dietary intake and memory problems in individuals. This study aims to examine the dietary histories of participants with newly diagnosed memory problems.

A total of 285 subjects (129 cases and 156 controls) were included in this retrospective case−control study. This paper used a food frequency questionnaire to determine the intake of dietary food groups in the previous year and a general questionnaire to assess food habits. The strength of the association between dietary history and memory problems was assessed using logistic regression and Pearson’s tests.

In this study, 73% of participants had a lower middle income and consumed less than the recommended number of meats, fruits and vegetables (1.2, 1.8 and 0.99 units/day, respectively). Participants with memory problems were more likely to take supplements than those without (P = 0.01). There was no significant difference in energy intake between the case and control groups (1634 Kcal vs 1656 Kcal). The results of the logistic regression showed that consuming any of the food groups in the previous nine months was not associated with memory problems. However, the Pearson test showed that an increase in the consumption of high-quality protein and vegetables had a slightly nonsignificant relationship with a decrease in the severity of memory disorder.

It is safe to suggest consuming adequate amounts of high-quality protein and affordable protein from sources such as dairy products, meats and vegetables. Research is insufficient to recommend the use of dietary supplements as a means of preventing memory disorders.

Reminiscence involves individuals discussing memories and experiences from their remembered past. With the aid of memory‐jogging materials such as photographs, music and newspapers, reminiscence has been widely used with older adults who have significant memory impairments as a consequence of dementia. This paper seeks to describe the use of reminiscence within a brain injury rehabilitation unit, including how to facilitate sessions and explore outcomes when using it with individuals who have brain injuries. Dementia Care Mapping was used to measure mood and engagement of participants in a reminiscence group, and self‐ratings that allow participants to comment about sessions were also obtained. Results indicate improvements in mood and engagement, as well as positive ratings from participants. Recommendations regarding the use of reminiscence are extended to include using it with adults with acquired brain injury within residential, day or community settings.

This paper aims to report the findings of a survey study exploring perceptions about cognitive impairment. These findings are relevant to public health campaigns and education programmes.

A survey exploring respondents’ views and knowledge about mild cognitive impairment (MCI) was circulated via UK networks. A total of 417 respondents completed the survey, including people living with cognitive impairment (n = 10), care partners (n = 23), older adults (n = 83), younger adults (n = 83), general health-care professionals (n = 96), dementia specialist health-care professionals (n = 48) and dementia specialists (n = 40).

Respondents were more confident in their knowledge about dementia than cognitive impairment but wanted more information about both conditions. Younger adults were uncertain about many aspects of MCI, and were the most likely to view MCI as a normal part of ageing. Diet (45.1%, n = 188) and personal behaviour (63.8%, n = 266) were the least endorsed possible causes of MCI, suggesting a lack of awareness of lifestyle choices as risk factors for MCI.

The results highlight the need to provide education and awareness raising about MCI to enable people to seek help in a timely manner and be able to make informed lifestyle choices that may reduce their risk of MCI and dementia. Implementing education about MCI and dementia in schools is a key target, as younger people were the most uncertain or misinformed about these topics. It is clear that further public health initiatives around MCI are both warranted and welcomed by the general public.

This case report highlights initial difficulties in identifying poor effort and malingering in relation to memory, cognitive deficits and mental disorder. We provide information on the outcome for a man charged with murder who was found to be unable to stand trial as a result of poor memory. After being sentenced by way of a hospital and restriction order, he was found upon inpatient assessment to be malingering and was remitted back to prison in order to continue his murder trial. We comment on the psychological tests, physical investigations and inpatient assessment required to confirm the presence of memory malingering.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can significantly affect academic performance in a wide range of areas including, working memory, language processing, attention, and internalizing and externalizing behaviors. This chapter will discuss characteristics associated with TBI, and provide a series of high- and low-tech strategies teachers can implement in their classrooms to help students who have experienced brain trauma to succeed through academic challenges. In addition, the benefits and weaknesses of certain technologies used by students with TBI in school and at home will be discussed.