Psychology in practice: Guidelines for the provision of psychological services for older adults

The practice of psychology covers the range of ages from conception through to the end of life and palliative care. Psychologists practice in a variety of roles, but the majority of these roles involve interactions with nonprofessionals of varying ages. These interactions are governed by codes of ethical practice, whether these are developed by the funding bodies for research activities, professional associations, or regulatory bodies. Ethical codes vary in their format and emphasis, but all have the protection of the public as a major purpose. Often there are special provisions in these codes for particular populations or circumstances. Here we describe the development of ethical guidelines for the practice of psychology with older adults in Australia and report on those guidelines and their supporting literature.

Global processing speed as a mediator of developmental changes in children's auditory memory span

This study examined the role of global processing speed in mediating age increases in auditory memory span in 5- to 13-year-olds. Children were tested on measures of memory span, processing speed, single-word speech rate, phonological sensitivity, and vocabulary. Structural equation modeling supported a model in which age-associated increases in processing speed predicted the availability of long-term memory phonological representations for redintegration processes. The availability of long-term phonological representations, in turn, explained variance in memory span. Maximum speech rate did not predict independent variance in memory span. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Comparison of cognitive screening tasks in an elderly veteran population

Screening measures of cognitive status are traditionally administered face to face. In survey research such screening mcasurcs, while desirable, must he administered by other means. As part of pilot survey research on a New Zealand war veteran population with some degree of hearing impairment, a face-to-face administration of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE; Folstein, Folstein and McHugh, 1975) and a telephoneadministration of the Telephonc Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS; Brandt, Spencer and Folstein. 1988) were compared. Brandt ('/ u/. (1988) reported a very strong linear relationship between scores on the MMSE and the TICS (r=0.94, p < .0001) in an Alzheimer patient population with a mcan MMSE score of 12.06 (6.78). For a sample of 44 mildly to moderately hearing impaired veterans, with a mean MMSE score of 25.52 (2.16) and a mean TICS score of 32.52(5.43), the correlation between the instruments was .39. When veterans who wore hearing aids during the telephone interview ( N = 2 2 ) wcrc separated out from those who did not, the correlation rose to .54. Age was ncgatively correlated with the MMSE ( r = -0.41, / I < .01) and not significantly correlated with the TICS. Education level was unrelated to either measure. The data suggest that the wearing or non-wearing of hearing aids may contribute significantly to the reliability of the TICS. Furthermore, on non-demented populations with a less restricted range of scores. the correlation of the MMSE and TICS may he lower than previously reported.