Cognitive Disabilities

Cognitive Limitations
CMPE 80A: Universal Access
Sri Kurniawan
February 13, 2008
Cognitive Impairment
o Different from cognitive disabilities
o Used in long term care insurance policy
o Changes in cognitive function resulting in
reduced intellectual capacity
o that exists concurrently with deficits in adaptive
behavior, sometimes requiring continual
supervision to protect the individual and others
affected
o and that affects communication and
understanding.
o Can be caused by diseases (Alzheimer’s,
Parkinson’s), trauma (brain injury, amnesia),
mental illnesses, unknown causes.
Cognitive Disabilities
o Difficulty with 1+ types of mental tasks
o Have some sort of basis in the biology or
physiology of the person
o A person with profound cognitive disability
will need assistance with nearly every aspect
of daily living
o A person with mild cognitive disability can
cope to the extent the disability is never
discovered or diagnosed
o Two classifications:
o Clinical: ASD, Down Syndrome, TBI, dementia
o Functional: ADD, learning disabilities (dyslexia,
dyscalculia etc).
Overview
o Cognitive Disabilities/Impairment
o Functional Cognitive Disabilities
o Developmental Disability: Pre-op
o Learning Disability: Dyslexia
o Attention Deficit Disorder
o Aging Cognition
o Simple Ways to Help
Detection: MMSE (adapted)
1. What date is today? Score: 5
2. What state are we in? Score: 5
3. Name 3 objects: 1s to say each. Score: 3
4. Spell “world” backward. Score: 5
5. Repeat the 3 objects you said before. Score: 3
6. Name the brand of a pen & a watch. Score: 2
7. Repeat the following “No ifs, ands, or buts”. Score: 1
8. Take a paper in your left hand, fold it in half and put
it on the floor. Score: 3
9. Read and obey: CLOSE YOUR EYES. Score: 1
10. Write a sentence. Score: 1
11. Copy this shape. Score: 1
Functional Cognitive Disabilities
o Problems with:
o executive functions 1
o memory
o attention
o visual and spatial perception
o language (including reading)
o mathematical thinking
o emotional control, expression, understanding
o speed of reasoning
o solving new problems
o solving problems based on experience
o Known persons: Winston Churchill, Thomas
Edison, Henry Ford, Leonardo da Vinci,
Albert Einstein
1 the mental capacity to control and plan mental skills

Problems with Daily Life
o executive functions:
o carrying out a sequence of operations
o managing a stack of goals and sub-goals
o memory:
o memorizing a sequence of actions
o learning a new task
o attention and perception:
o interpreting a complex display
o language:
o understanding error messages/cues
o spelling a search term
o speed of reasoning:
o responding to a timed menu
o When interacting with technology
oAttracted by bright colors, loud noises, animation
oSome tended to click anywhere / anything
oAvatars were positively responded to
oDragging was a problem for some
oConstantly need assurance and feedback
oActivities with no right or wrong are preferred – but
rewards are good
oThey remember the thing they like
o Not many applications are out there
oMany are too cognitively complex
oCost – esoteric feature, specialized market
oBut they have similar needs to others
Learning disability: dyslexia
o Symptoms (cont’d):
o Sequencing: difficulty remembering series of
numbers, events, nursery rhymes
o Motor: fine motor skill (tying shoe laces), 20% are
late walkers, problems skipping, catching
o Laterality: 25% show preference for using their left
hand, 70% are late in deciding which hand to use.
o See all of these:
Developmental Disabilities
o Developmental stages:
o Sensori-motor (birth—2 years)
o Pre-operational (ages 2-7)
o Concrete Operational (ages 7-11)
o Formal Operational (ages 11 and up)
o Early pre-op stage
o Slower information processing skills
o Need approval and reassurance
o Little patience
o Learn through play
o Limited fine motor skills
o Limited attention span
o Limited vocabulary
Learning disability: dyslexia
o Literally: problem with language
o Most common learning disability (85%)
o In 1876 doctors though it was vision problem
o 85% come from family with dyslexia
o 60% are late talkers and have word-naming
problems.
o 30% can describe a person or object, but are
unable to put a name to them
oSymptoms:
o Spelling: reversal of letters and figures (b/d, 15/51)
o Writing: difficulties in expression, sentence
structure, punctuation
o Auditory: problem remembering how a word
sounds
Dyslexia in Chinese
o confusion with similar-looking characters;
o difficulty in understanding that the same characters
can have different meaning and pronunciation
o difficulty in understanding that the meaning of a
character may depend on its context
o inability to comprehend that different characters may
have the same pronunciation but
different tones or the same
pronunciation and tone but different
meanings
o problems with the proper sequences
of strokes in writing characters

Dyslexia in Arabic
o Arabic: Alphabetic - 28 letters
o Consonants - letters
o Vowels - diacritics
oCursive script
o Bi-Directional
o Letters: RTL
oNumbers: LTR
oOrthography
Visual
complexity
o Shallow – diacritics/vowelized
oDeep –no vowels hrd can be
heard, hard, hired, herd
o Full justification works better
o Also have font types
sensory inputs:
eyes
ears
sensory
buffers
Visual Image
Store
Perceptual
Processor
Long-term Memory
Working Memory
Auditory Image
Store
Motor
Processor
Cognitive
Processor
fingers, limbs, vocal system
Phological
processing
Attention Deficit Disorder
o Often fidgets and squirms
o Difficulty remaining seated
o Easily distracted
o Difficulty waiting to take
turns
o Often blurts out answers
before question
completed
o Difficulties following
instruction
o Difficulties sustaining task
attention
o Often shifts from one
activity to another
o Difficulty working
quietly
o Often talks
excessively
o Interrupts or intrudes
on others
o Seems not to listen
o Loses necessary
things (books, toys)
o Behaves in
dangerous ways
without thought
Human Information Processing Aging Cognition
Simple ways to help
o Use consistent layouts and formats
o Use left-justification for alphabet-based
languages
o Present information in more than 1 formats
o Use clear and simple wording and easy to
understand graphical cues
o Use judicious white space
o Always provide step-by-step instructions
o In user interfaces/websites:
o Allow the user to control: font sizes, font styles,
background/text colors.
o Make sure the page/interface is readable
by a screen reader
o Allow the user to turn off any animated elements,
pop-up windows, and any distracters in general
Tode or mot to pe
o Episodic memory is impaired while semantic
memory remains relatively intact
o Language comprehension improves
o More affected by interference in LTM tipof-the-tongue
phenomenon
o Working memory deficit (forgetting)
o Slower cognitive processing
o More easily distracted by irrelevant material
(reduced selective attention).
o Less ability to have divided attention
o Knock-off effect (impairment at sensory level
causes more load in already reduced
cognition)
Helping through Universal Design
o Good metaphor: use real-world objects to
represent functions
o Good mapping: doesn’t need a rocket scientist
to figure out which controls which
o Safety from prosecution: Make it difficult for users
to do unintended errors, undo and redo,
automatic backup.

Helping through Universal Design
o Good visibility: Make things visually clear
without having to guess
o Place constraint: Hide irrelevant things
o Good affordance: make it so that it’s clear
what can be done with objects