A Multiple Case Study of Wayfinding in Dementia of the Alzheimer Type: Decision Making

Difficulties in finding ones way around familiar and unfamiliar places are among the first clinical signs of dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT). Few systematic studies have directly examined this ability. This paper reports on wayfinding abilities and decision making of fourteen patients at the early and intermediate stages of the disease. They were asked to reach a destination in a hospital. Each patient was matched with two control subjects. Their verbalizations during the route were recorded, transcribed and content-analyzed to identify decisions according to a pre-established typology. Multiple correspondence analysis was used to reveal patterns of decision making. For the original trip, results showed that DAT patients still had the ability to deal with decisions considered basic and concrete. However, decisions based on higher intellectual abilities were much more difficult.