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Abstract Objective Activities of daily living (ADLs) and executive functional abilities are increasingly impaired in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (ad). Impaired individuals adopt executive strategies to aid in executing executive everyday tasks. The Five Point Test measures indices of executive functioning when completing the task. The study examines the role of strategy use in everyday problem-solving in healthy older adults (HOA), MCI, and ad. Method Participants included HOA adults (n = 58), persons with MCI (n = 63), and individuals with ad (n = 18). Participants completed a background questionnaire, including the Everyday Problems Test (EPT). In the Five Point Test, using straight lines, participants were instructed to draw various designs in three minutes, avoiding errors across three conditions. The use of the Rotational Strategy is measured by participants generating a new design by rotating the previous spatial configuration. The use of an enumerative strategy was measured by participants generating a pattern by consecutively adding or deleting a line from the previous design. Results Linear regressions were conducted to determine the role of strategy use in everyday problem-solving (i.e., rotational and enumerative strategies). It was revealed that the use of the rotational strategy predicted EPT solving in the MCI group. However, problem-solving abilities did not predict EPT solving in HOA and ad. Conclusion Interestingly, the rotational strategy was better executed across all groups, while the ad group exhibited limited strategy use. Results suggest that those with subtle cognitive deficits adopt strategies to better execute problem-solving in real-life problems.
Sidhu et al. (Thu,) studied this question.