•
BIDDEFORD, Maine

Benjamin Katz, Jessica Hering and Elizabeth Whitmore present at New England Psychological Association annual conference

Along with their faculty mentors Jennifer Stiegler-Balfour, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology and Regula Robnett, Ph.D., professor of occupational therapy, students Benjamin Katz (Psychology ’17), Jessica Hering (Occupational Studies major and Psychology minor ’15), and Elizabeth Whitmore (Medical Biology major and Psychology minor ’14) recently presented at the New England Psychological Association’s annual conference. This year’s event was held at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.

The presentation, titled "Protagonist goal monitoring in participants with mild cognitive impairment and normal cognitive functioning​," examined the effects of aging and memory decline on reading comprehension.

For this study, the research team administered a reading comprehension task via computer in conjunction with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) test to determine if participants had experienced any cognitive decline.

The results showed that individuals with lower scores on the MoCA tend not to be sensitive to subtle nuances of written text such as detecting small inconsistencies. Specifically, individuals who had lower attention spans as well as trouble with language fluency (sub-scales on the MoCA) had difficulty monitoring protagonists’ goals and were unable to detect if the protagonist performed an action that was inconsistent with previously stated intentions. 

About the University of New England

The University of New England is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible, accredited online degrees. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.