The interpretation of proverbs by elderly with high, medium and low educational level: Abstract reasoning as an aspect of executive functions

• Autor(a) principal: Wachholz,Thalita Bianchi de Oliveira
• Data de Publicação: 2011
• Outros Autores: Yassuda,Mônica Sanches
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Dementia & Neuropsychologia
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1980-57642011000100031
• topic: aging; executive functions; abstract reasoning; test of proverbs

Abstract It is now known that cognitive functions tend to decline with age. Executive functions (EF) are among the first abilities to decline with aging. A subcomponent of the EF is abstract reasoning. The Test of Proverbs is an instrument that can be used to evaluate the capacity of abstract reasoning. Objective: To examine the association of performance in interpretation of proverbs, with education and with episodic memory and EF tasks. Methods: A total of 67 individuals aged between 60 and 75 years were evaluated, and divided into three categories of education: 1-4 years, 5-8 years, and 9 or more years of schooling. The instruments used were a sociodemographic questionnaire (gender, age, marital status, education, income, previous occupation, current occupation and health perception), the Mini Mental State Examination, Brief Cognitive Screening Battery; Geriatric Depression Scale; Forward and Backward Digit Span (WAIS-III), and the Test of Proverbs. Results: A high impact of education was seen on the interpretation of proverbs, with lower performance among the elderly with less education. A significant association between performance on the Test of Proverbs and scores on the MMSE, GDS, and verbal fluency tests was found. There was a modest association with incidental memory. Conclusions: The capacity to interpret proverbs is strongly associated with education and with performance on other EF tasks.