Conversation analysis in dementia

Question 1

What are the main two findings of CA in dementia?

Answer 1

atypical:
- sequences of actions
- topic talk

Question 2

What are the findings of Wilkinson (2019)?

Answer 2

• common way of displaying atypical talk is atypical use of actions
• form of utterance good, something pragmatically odd

Question 3

What are a key feature of questions?

Answer 3

• display epistemic imbalance
• the questioner presents him/herself as being less informed than the speaker who will answer
• questioner may respond to the answer with a third turn which shows he/she has now become informed

Question 4

Describe Jones (2015) study

Answer 4

• single case study of phone convo
• episodic memory impairments associated with AD mean that she has difficulty answering what seem simple, routine questions from her family members
• can cause embarrassment and distress
• sometimes can work towards answer in collaboration with CP (able to use her remaining knowledge to ‘guess’ what she should answer and to know what an appropriate type of response should be)
• sometimes backfires if she gets it wrong
• How the family members answer to May’s questions can also cause her distress (e.g. if she has forgotten the answer)
• for the family members the question about returning home has been asked many times before by May (and therefore can be annoying), for May it is as if she is asking this question for the first time (and therefore the answer can upset her)

Question 5

Describe Mikesell (2009, 2010) study

Answer 5

• man with FTD
• can produce turn but not typically initiate sequences
• does not seem to be able to understand/deal with the larger activity that his turn is produced within
• ‘I don’t know’ seems to be a useful response for SD as it allows him to at least respond to a wide range of questions - however can draw ability to diffs
• often uses modified repeats - useful as words are already there in the prior turn, and it allows the speaker to claim understanding

Question 6

Describe the findings of Joaquin (2010)

Answer 6

• the way CPs talk to someone with FT can resemble adults taking to children
• can further reduce their autonomy and agency

Question 7

What were the findings of Perkins et al (1998)?

Answer 7

Topic change/initiation
- PWD may produce turns which appear topically incoherent or are perhaps attempting to start a new topic
- very abruptly
- topics may be unequally shared - it may fall to CP to carry the topic

Question 8

What are findings on topic perserveration?

Answer 8

• reported in DAT (Muller & Guendouzi, 2005)
• and lewy body dementia (Perkins et al., 1998)

Question 9

What are confabulations in dementia?

Answer 9

• present statements about facts in the world where those statements are evidently incorrect
• PWD is unaware of this incorrectness
• brought about by a number of psychological causes

Question 10

What are the findings about confabulation?

Answer 10

• common response is CP produce ‘minimal responses’ eg ‘mm hm’, ‘uh huh’
• useful conversational resource for the PWD’s conversation partners
• potentially ambiguous
• non-committal

Question 11

What were the findings of Kitzinger & Jones 2007?

Answer 11

• looked at openings of phone calls of woman with AD
• can typically carry out call openings relatively normally
• she has enough intact cognitive ability to deal with this conversational task which is relatively structured and routinized

Question 12

What were the findings of Kindell et al (2013)?

Answer 12

• looked at compensatory strategies in FTD
• uses direct reported speech, pointing, drawing
• lack of repair - has found a way of talking fluently where doesn’t need much repair