The Virtual Dementia Tour

P.K. Bevillie at Alzheimer’s Reading Room reports on the Virtual Dementia Tour, a simulation designed to help Caregivers better understand the effects of Dementia and Alzheimer’s on a person. Findings point to the importance and benefits of providing positive reinforcement to those affected.

The goal of reinforcement in the VDT study was to determine its effect on keeping the participants involved and performing tasks during the tour, thus allowing us to see if it is likely that positive reinforcement could be a tool for managing the behavior and mood of people with dementia. At this juncture, there have been no studies to determine the effects of verbal and physical reinforcement on people with a cognitive decline.

During the VDT if a participant made a statement about giving up, sat down, tried to leave, or asked for help, they were touched on the arm and told, “You are doing great! You only have x number of tasks to go (the number of tasks that had not been completed). Look around the room and see if anything looks familiar to help you along.” No other help was given even if the participant responded with, “but I don’t remember any more”. This allowed us to observe the pure results of that one interaction on the participant.

In the study, 44% required reinforcement in order to continue. This means that almost half of the people that took the tour had to be reinforced. Since we will assume that those participants are normal, it is most likely that reinforcement for those with dementia will be much more. Without the reinforcement, the participants would have given up or become increasingly agitated. Think of how this applies to those we care for.

Of those needing reinforcement, 81% continued with the tasks after being encouraged and touched. Even more exciting, 99% stayed in the tour room until they were told that their time was up! The reinforcement calmed them down, refocused them, and motivated them to continue. One interesting point is that reinforcement occurred, on average, at about four minutes into the tasks. It is also important to note that the observer touched the participants when they were reinforced. Touch, in and of itself, is a form of reinforcement and in this case it helped to orient the person to the reinforcer (or caregiver).

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