Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122, USA.
J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2010 May;16(3):484-94. doi: 10.1017/S1355617710000081. Epub 2010 Mar 19.
This study evaluated the impact of distractor objects and their similarity to target objects on everyday task performance in dementia. Twenty participants with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease (n = 12) or subcortical vascular disease (n = 8) were videotaped while they performed 3 discrete tasks: (1) make a cup of coffee, (2) wrap a gift, and (3) pack a lunch under two conditions that were counterbalanced across participants. The conditions differed in terms of the type of distractor objects included in the workspace: (1) Target-Related Distractor Condition - distractor objects were functionally and visually similar to target objects (e.g., salt for sugar) (2) Unrelated Distractor Condition - distractors were neither visually nor functionally similar to targets (e.g., glue for sugar). Participants touched (t = 4.19; p < .01) and used (z = 3.00; p < .01) significantly more distractors, made more distractor errors (i.e., substitutions; t = 2.93; p < .01), and took longer to complete tasks (t = 2.27; p < .05) in the Target-Related Distractor condition. The percent of steps accomplished and non-distractor errors did not differ across conditions (t < 1.26; p > .05 for both). In summary, distractors that were similar to targets elicited significant interference effects circumscribed to object selection.
本研究评估了分心物及其与目标物的相似性对痴呆患者日常任务表现的影响。20 名因阿尔茨海默病（n = 12）或皮质下血管性疾病（n = 8）导致痴呆的参与者在进行 3 项离散任务时被录像：（1）冲咖啡，（2）包装礼物，（3）在两种条件下包装午餐，这些条件在参与者之间是平衡的。条件在工作空间中包含的分心物类型上有所不同：（1）目标相关分心物条件-分心物在功能和视觉上与目标物相似（例如，盐代替糖）（2）不相关分心物条件-分心物在视觉和功能上均与目标物不相似（例如，胶水代替糖）。参与者触摸（t = 4.19；p <.01）和使用（z = 3.00；p <.01）明显更多的分心物，犯了更多的分心物错误（即替代；t = 2.93；p <.01），并且在目标相关分心物条件下完成任务的时间更长（t = 2.27；p <.05）。完成步骤的百分比和非分心物错误在条件之间没有差异（两者的 t < 1.26；p >.05）。总之，与目标物相似的分心物会引起明显的干扰效应，仅限于对象选择。
