Degree Name
Master of Science
Department or Program
Behavior Analysis and Therapy
Advisor
Baker, Jonathan C.
Abstract
Past research has been inconclusive when assessing older individuals and their responding on stimulus equivalence tasks. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the ability of individuals with neurocognitive disorder (NCD) to detect the presence of a stimulus when presented along with varying amounts of distracter stimuli or “noise”. In this study, two older female participants, ages 71 and 84, with NCD, were asked to participate in a computer based task designed using a visual signal detection procedure. This procedure consisted of three parts, each presented elctronically using a computer and designed to assess their ability to percieve the presense or lack of a visual stimulus, a red circle, when also presented with several distractor stimuli. It was hypothesized that the performance of older individuals would decline when presented with increased “noise” levels.