Use Of Compensatory Strategies Research Articles

Bridging the gap between clinical trials and community care: Translating a memory group for older people with mild cognitive impairment into a community-based organisation.

Older people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are seeking interventions for maintaining independence. This study investigates the feasibility of translating a research-evaluated memory group (LaTCH) into a community-based organisation by evaluating the experiences of clients and trained staff. Dementia Australia staff trained as facilitators of memory groups for 274 people with MCI and families. Clients and staff were interviewed regarding experiences from group participation. Clients and staff reported benefits of shared experience through group participation, leading to greater use of compensatory strategies. Staff observed client improvement in memory-related self-confidence, thereby reducing anxiety and increasing re-engagement in life activities. In their own professional roles, staff reported increased self-efficacy, leading to greater role satisfaction. Several challenges in running and sustaining the program were also identified. Memory group interventions can be feasibly delivered in a community setting and increase service access opportunities for older people with memory problems.

Structured External Memory Aid Treatment for Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Purpose The aims of this study were (a) to examine the effects of a structured external memory aid (EMA) treatment for individuals with possible mild neurocognitive disorder on their use of EMAs to compensate for memory impairments, (b) to examine the extent that improved functional EMA use maintains following intervention, and (c) to measure the effects of treatment on participants' self-reported memory skills. Method The researchers employed a multiple-baseline design across subjects within dyads. Data were collected using the Roleplay Assessment. The graphed data were analyzed visually at baseline, treatment, and maintenance sessions. In addition, the researchers examined the participants' self-report of memory skills through an experimental pre-post design. Results Following intervention, a functional strategy use treatment effect was observed. All 6 participants' graphs revealed a large positive change in level, with no overlapping data. Statistical analyses also supported the positive effects of treatment. The participants maintained the use of strategies for 1-3 months. The participants self-reported a statistically significant increase in strategy use following intervention. Conclusions With treatment, individuals with mild memory impairments can learn to use EMAs to facilitate enhanced performance on functional activities. This study provides evidence for the importance of documenting individual treatment effects and using a functional measure to examine compensatory strategy use in everyday tasks.

Compensatory strategies below the behavioural surface in autism: a qualitative study

SummaryBackgroundLittle is known about the compensatory profile in autism; that is, people with autism spectrum disorder who show few symptoms in their behavioural presentation, despite continuing to report autism-related cognitive difficulties or differences. Even less is known about the specific compensatory strategies that these individuals use to disguise autism at the behavioural surface, both in the clinic and everyday life. It is also currently unclear whether individuals without a formal autism diagnosis, but experiencing autistic-like difficulties, use similar compensatory strategies, potentially enabling them to sit below the diagnostic threshold. This study aimed to investigate social compensatory strategies, and their effect on diagnosis and clinical outcome, in adults with and without autism.MethodsIn this study, individuals aged 18 years or older who responded to a study advert that was distributed worldwide via social media and the UK National Autistic Society formed a convenience sample. Participants self-reported their use and experiences of compensatory strategies using an online platform. Novel analyses, including a qualitative thematic approach, were used to interpret their responses and gain insight into compensatory strategies in autism.FindingsBetween Oct 19, 2017, and Jan 2, 2018, 136 adults (58 had a clinical diagnosis of autism, 19 self-identified but were not formally diagnosed as autistic, and 59 were not diagnosed or self-identified, but nevertheless reported social difficulties) completed the online study questions. The findings suggested that there are multiple compensatory strategies with distinct characteristics, individual and environmental factors that modulate compensatory strategy use and success, positive (social relationships, independence, employment) and negative (poor mental health, late diagnosis) outcomes associated with compensatory strategy use, and that individuals without a diagnosis use compensatory strategies that are qualitatively similar to individuals with a diagnosis.InterpretationIncreased awareness and measurement of compensatory strategy use in autism should guide future diagnostic guidelines, towards improved diagnostic accuracy and support for people with autism spectrum disorder whose cognitive difficulties are not immediately evident in observable behaviour.FundingUK Medical Research Council and UK National Institute for Health Research.

A Combined Treatment Approach to Support Everyday Function and Promote Brain Health in Older Adults: A Pilot Study

ABSTRACTObjective: Subtle changes in functional abilities are an early indicator of cognitive impairment. Early intervention may be key to prolonging independence. This study describes the development and program evaluation of an intervention designed to (1) bolster the use of compensation strategies that support everyday executive and memory functioning and (2) utilize these strategies to promote engagement in brain health activities.Method: Older adults (n = 35) with subjective cognitive complaints completed an eight-week group program targeting compensation strategies (e.g., calendars) and brain health activities (e.g., physical exercise). Participants completed outcome measures at first, last, and 3 month follow-up sessions.Results: Compensation strategy use can be successfully taught to and implemented by older adults, and increasing engagement in brain health behaviors is possible, although particular lifestyle changes are challenging to implement.Conclusion: Findings support the use of interventions aimed at increased engagement in compensation strategies to aid everyday memory and executive functioning.Clinical Implications: Early intervention may help to promote prolonged functional independence.

Pharmacological Enhancement of Stroke Recovery.

This review aims to discuss the recent literature relating to drugs for stroke recovery and to identify some of the challenges in conducting translational research for stroke recovery. Advances in our understanding of neural repair mechanisms in pre-clinical stroke models have provided insights into potential targets for drugs that enhance the repair/recovery process. Few drugs that act on serotonergic and dopaminergic systems have been tested in humans with mixed results. The FOCUS trial, a phase III study of early administration of fluoxetine for stroke recovery, failed to replicate the promising results of the FLAME trial, but outcome measures differed between the two trials. Another drug that has recently been shown to have potential to promote motor recovery after stroke is maraviroc, an inhibitor of C-C chemokine receptor 5 that is involved in learning and memory. Various drugs, including modulators of neurotransmitters, axonal growth inhibitor blockers, and growth factors, have been examined in preclinical and clinical studies for their ability to promote neural repair, particularly in the motor system. Neuroplasticity, broadly defined as the capacity of the brain to undergo biochemical, structural, or functional changes, is heightened early after stroke when behavioral improvements are observed. Further studies are needed to determine which of these neuroplastic processes are causal to recovery and therefore appropriate targets for drugs to promote recovery. There has also been little focus on trying to distinguish processes that promote true behavioral recovery versus those that improve task success through use of compensatory strategies. Incorporation of sensitive and detailed outcome measures that assess movement quality as well as task success in both preclinical and clinical studies are needed to further elucidate appropriate drug targets and improve the translation of preclinical findings into successful clinical trials.

Target language proficiency and reported use of compensatory strategies by young CLIL learners

Studies investigating compensatory strategies (CSs) by means of questionnaires in English‐as‐a‐Foreign‐Language (EFL) contexts with young learners are lacking, particularly in Content‐and‐Language‐Integrated‐Learning (CLIL) environments. Three different proficiency groups of young English learners in a CLIL programme were administered a survey to explore the existence of intergroup differences regarding the amount and types of CSs used. Learners exhibited a moderately high use of CSs overall, and no differences emerged regarding the total number of CSs as a function of target language (TL) proficiency. In terms of types of CSs used, they reported using some CSs (paraphrasing) which are typical of more advanced learners. However, more proficient learners were found to draw on some non L2‐based strategies (avoidance, foreignising, miming) to a lesser extent than less proficient learners.

Deficits in the Use of Verb Bias Information in Real-Time Processing by College Students With Developmental Language Disorder

Purpose This study examined whether college students with developmental language disorder (DLD) showed similar sensitivity to verb bias information during real-time sentence processing as typically developing (TD) peers. Method Seventeen college students with DLD and 16 TD college students participated in a mouse-tracking experiment that utilized the visual world paradigm to examine real-time sentence processing. In experimental trials, participants chose 1 of 2 pictured interpretations of a sentence. Measures of interest were the choice of interpretation and the amount of competition from the unchosen picture as measured by mouse curvature. Results Choice of interpretation and mouse movements by college students with DLD suggested less sensitivity to verb bias information than their TD peers. Conclusion College students with DLD showed less evidence of sensitivity to verb bias information than their TD peers in this task. Their performance may reflect the use of compensatory processing strategies and may be related to poor comprehension abilities often observed in this population.

Self-Efficacy and the Use of Compensatory Strategies: A Study on EFL Learners

<p style="text-align:justify">This study aimed to explore the relationship between Turkish English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ self-efficacy level and their use of compensatory strategies (CSs). The study further searched into the most and the least frequently used CSs by Turkish EFL learners. The participants of the study were fifty university students enrolled in the department of English Language Teaching at a private university in Istanbul, Turkey. Results indicated that the level of self-efficacy among Turkish learners of EFL was high. The top two most frequently used CSs by the learners were concluded to be the use of non-verbal signals (i.e., mime, gesture, facial expression) and circumlocution (i.e., describing an object or idea with a definition). In addition, the two least frequently used strategies were word coinage (i.e., creating a non-existent second language word based on a supposed rule) and avoidance (i.e., avoiding a topic, concept, grammatical construction, or phonological element that poses difficulty). The findings also revealed that the participants’ strategy use was not related to their degree of self-confidence.</p>

Leisure participation in frail and pre-frail older adults: What do we know about their knowledge and motivation concerning the use of compensatory strategies?

This descriptive study aimed to determine whether frail and pre-frail seniors know about specific compensatory strategies that healthcare professionals believe would foster their engagement in leisure activities, and whether they are motivated to use these strategies. Knowledge and motivation toward compensatory strategies were assessed in 26 community-dwelling older adults (80+) with valid and reliable rating scales. Strategies such as Taking breaks and Changing the time of the activity were more likely to be known and motivating. Participants reported different levels of knowledge and motivation toward Using a walking aid, wheelchair loans, chauffeuring by others, and accessible parking permit. Using paratransit services was a strategy more likely to be unknown but motivating. Results will support the development of interventions that foster vulnerable older adults’ optimal participation in meaningful leisure activities. The findings may also have implications for social policy, underlying the need to promote awareness of adaptive and accessible compensatory strategies.

Supplemental Material for Compensatory Strategy Use Improves Real-World Functional Performance in Community Dwelling Older Adults

Supplemental Material for Compensatory Strategy Use Improves Real-World Functional Performance in Community Dwelling Older Adults

Daily Selection, Optimization, and Compensation Strategy Use and Innovative Performance

Abstract. Knowledge on how to improve employees’ daily innovative performance is imperative, because innovation contributes importantly to organizational competitiveness. We tested a model in which daily use of selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC) strategies mediates the relationship between daily job autonomy and daily innovative performance. Moreover, we predicted that the association between daily SOC strategy use and daily innovative performance is stronger on days when time pressure is high (vs. low). Hypotheses were tested using a daily diary study in which employees filled out a short questionnaire at the end of their workday for a period of five workdays ( N = 91; 381 daily entries). Results of structural equation modeling analyses supported our mediation, but not our moderation hypothesis.

Effects of a Cognitive Rehabilitation Workshop for Veterans on Self-Efficacy and Compensatory Strategy Use

1. To assess the effects of cognitive rehabilitation on Veterans’ use of compensatory strategies and improvement of their cognitive self-efficacy; 2. to examine the relationships between use of compensatory strategies and self-efficacy over time; 3. to explore group differences between Veterans with persistent mental illness and those with substance use disorders.

Language Production and Communication Strategy Use during the Performance of Language Tasks

Using three communicative language tasks designed based on Ellis’ (2009a) task characteristics, this study looks at how language production and communication strategy use will vary with a change in task material types and lexical concreteness of vocabulary items. Korean university students worked in speaker-listener pairs to describe and identify three sets of words. Each task used different types of materials for the listener (pictures, words, and no materials). Language production was analyzed through the identification of AS‐units and compensatory strategy use. There was a clear increase in language produced for the third task (no materials). The participants used a very restricted number of strategies, mainly analytic conceptual compensatory strategies. The implications include the need for instructors to use more output-prompting tasks, and to introduce learners to more communication strategies.

Self–other differences in multiattribute decision making: Compensatory versus noncompensatory decision strategies

AbstractWhen making decisions where options involve multiple attributes, a person can choose to use a compensatory, utility maximizing strategy, which involves consideration and integration of all available attributes. Alternatively, a person can choose a noncompensatory strategy that extracts only the most important and reliable attributes. The present research examined whether other‐oriented decisions would involve greater reliance on a noncompensatory, lexicographic decision strategy than self‐oriented decisions. In three studies (Mturk workers and college students), the difference in other‐oriented versus self‐oriented decisions in a medical decision context was explained by a subsample of participants that chose the death minimizing operation on all 10 decisions (Study 1) and a subsample of participants who self‐reported that they used a strategy that minimized the chance of death on every decision (i.e., a lexicographic mortality heuristic; Study 2). In Study 2, tests of mediation found that self‐reported use of the mortality heuristic completely accounted for the self–other effect on decisions. In Study 3, participants were more likely to report prospectively that they would adopt the mortality heuristic when making decisions for others than for themselves, suggesting that participants were not mistakenly inferring a lexicographic decision strategy from their past behavior. The results suggest that self–other effects in multiattribute choice involve differential use of compensatory versus noncompensatory decision strategies and that beyond this group difference, individual differences in the use of these strategies also exist within self‐oriented and other‐oriented decisions.

Positive neuropsychology: The science and practice of promoting cognitive health

ABSTRACTPositive psychology has influenced multiple subfields within psychology and areas outside of psychology. While positive psychology’s focus on positive mental health and character strengths did not appear to meaningfully impact neuropsychology in its earlier stages, more recent indications suggest that the neuropsychological literature, and perhaps the field as a whole, has begun to embrace related research and practice applications. In this context, positive neuropsychology has emerged as a neuropsychological orientation focused on the study and practice of promoting cognitive health. The present review discusses the origins of positive neuropsychology and elaborates on its six key evidence-based domains: compensatory strategy use, activity engagement, prevention of cognitive impairment, public education, exceptional cognition, and positive cognitive outcomes in neuropsychiatric populations. This broad perspective on cognitive wellness can easily be embraced by both clinicians and researchers and offers multiple directions for future growth. Ultimately, consideration of various methods to promote cognitive health can inform our understanding of optimal brain function, maximize functioning in individuals with cognitive limitations, and enhance quality of life among populations served by neuropsychologists.

What types of recommendations are we giving patients? A survey of clinical neuropsychologists

Objective: To identify types of recommendations that neuropsychologists most frequently give to patients, and determine which specific recommendations are most and least consistently given to patients across and within different diagnostic populations. Method: A total of 309 clinical neuropsychologists completed a survey evaluating the frequency with which they made particular types of recommendations (e.g. driving, employment and education, health and rehabilitation referrals) to patients with various disorders (e.g. traumatic brain injury, dementia). Results: Recommendations in some categories were common across diagnoses (e.g. recommendations related to health). Neuropsychologists reported being more likely to give patients with dementia (relative to other clinical populations) recommendations related to educational resources, supervision and independence, and driving. Patients with a TBI diagnosis were more likely to be given recommendations related to employment and education, health and rehabilitation referrals, and mental health and substance use. Patients with a psychiatric diagnosis were more likely to be given recommendations related to mental health and substance use. Irrespective of diagnosis, neuropsychologists reported being most likely to give recommendations that could be implemented by the patient or caregiver without assistance from outside sources. Neuropsychologists varied in their use of recommendations to seek evaluations and treatment from health and rehabilitation referrals and in providing recommendations related to driving. Conclusions: Recommendations provided within diagnostic groups are consistent with the etiology and prognosis of those conditions. Recommendations for the use of compensatory strategies to address cognitive deficits and recommendations to improve health were endorsed by the vast majority of neuropsychologists across diagnoses.

МЕТОДИКА ФОРМУВАННЯ КОМПЕНСАТОРНОЇ КОМПЕТЕНЦІЇ СТУДЕНТІВ-ФІЛОЛОГІВ У ВИЩІЙ ШКОЛІ

The work deals with the problems of the formation of the compensatory competence of the students in the universities.Compensatory competence is an essential component of communicative competence and serves as one of the goals of education in the university. Сompensatory competence refers to the ability of the individual to withdraw from diffi cult situations because of lack of communication or speech language resources through the use of compensatory strategies and skills. Identifying a list of compensatory strategies and skills wasone of the main objectives of the study, which was resolved by the analysis of research. In this paper an attempt of system analysis method of forming compensatory competence in the comprehensive study of a foreign language in high school was made. Compensatory linguisticcompetence determines the strategy of the speaker in case of defi ciency of language and speech resources is impossible without communication process. The major terms of the formation of compensatory competencies are focused complex formation compensatory skills as part of a single strategy; subsequent transition to other types of strategies based on learned skills; before connecting language skills while working on data skills.

Compensation Strategies in Older Adults: Association With Cognition and Everyday Function.

Compensation strategies may contribute to greater resilience among older adults, even in the face of cognitive decline. This study sought to better understand how compensation strategy use among older adults with varying degrees of cognitive impairment impacts everyday functioning. In all, 125 older adults (normal cognition, mild cognitive impairment, dementia) underwent neuropsychological testing, and their informants completed questionnaires regarding everyday compensation and cognitive and functional abilities. Cognitively normal and mild cognitive impairment older adults had greater levels of compensation use than those with dementia. Higher levels of neuropsychological functioning were associated with more frequent compensation use. Most importantly, greater frequency of compensation strategy use was associated with higher levels of independence in everyday function, even after accounting for cognition. Use of compensation strategies is associated with higher levels of functioning in daily life among older adults. Findings provide strong rational for development of interventions that directly target such strategies.

The moderating role of socioeconomic status on motivation of adolescents’ foreign language learning strategy use

Previous research has amply established the link between motivation and learning strategy with regards to language learning. However, there have been few investigations into the role of socioeconomic status (SES) in second or foreign language learning. Using questionnaire data on an 8th grade cohort (N = 203, female = 110) from a large urban community in South Korea, we investigated SES as a moderator of the relationship between motivational orientation and language learning strategy use among adolescent students. A series of hierarchical linear models provided empirical evidence that, when drawing only on intrinsic motivation, low-SES adolescents tended to make relatively high use of social strategies. High-SES students, on the other hand, generally showed higher levels of effort, mastery goal orientation, and internal control, and they made greater use of cognitive, metacognitive, compensatory, and social strategies. These findings suggest that an adolescent's SES does affect the relationship between motivation and the use of various language learning strategies; they also suggest the need for greater fostering of low-SES students who are learning foreign languages.

Exploring the Impact of a New Intervention to Increase Participation of Frail Older Adults in Meaningful Leisure Activities

ABSTRACTMany frail older adults have difficulty maintaining social participation. We developed an innovative, personalized intervention to help frail older adults pursue meaningful leisure activities through the use of compensatory strategies. This pre-experimental pilot study conducted with 10 community-dwelling frail older adults (≥80 years) showed that the intervention improved their knowledge regarding the compensatory strategies learned and their participation in meaningful leisure activities. However, results also showed a decrease in feelings of well-being. This study provides promising results to support the implementation of an innovative intervention tailored to the needs of frail seniors and designed to foster their participation. However, further research is needed to improve our understanding of the impact of the intervention on well-being and explain the results obtained.