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Author Topic:   Predictive Alzheimer's Test
Percy
Member
Posts: 22392
From: New Hampshire
Joined: 12-23-2000
Member Rating: 5.2


(1)
Message 1 of 5 (884294)
02-07-2021 11:06 AM


The NYT ran an article about a test that predicts who might get Alzheimer's: Alzheimer’s Prediction May Be Found in Writing Tests - The New York Times. It uses analysis of writing samples. Here's the example from the article:
The two examples of impaired writing are pretty bad. I would consider anyone who wrote like that already impaired, but according to the article the people who wrote that way presented as normal. That hardly seems possible.
I wondered what I might have written about that drawing, so here it is:
A boy is falling off a stool as he reaches for cookies on a high shelf. The stool has only three legs, very unusual for a stool of that height. He has a cookie in his left hand and has just grabbed a cookie with his right. A girl, probably his sister, stands next to the stool reaching for the cookie in his left hand and doesn't seem to realize that he's falling. The drawing of her face and right hand is indistinct so possibly she's just beginning to register concern, but it seems more likely she's eating a cookie.
Meanwhile the mother is busy washing dishes completely oblivious to the cookie theft and the water overflowing the sink. At this particular moment she is drying a dish. Water overflowing the sink seems unlikely given that almost all sinks have an overflow drain. The water is overflowing the sink far faster than any faucet could ever fill it. What is this woman preoccupied with? Given the absurdity of the drawing I'll guess she's worried about body snatchers, or possibly has already been snatched.
The cabinet with the cookies is weirdly otherwise empty. The handle on the cabinet door to the left is way too high and would never be placed there, plus if that door is as wide as the adjacent doors then the handle is in the middle of the door instead of on the edge. There are no visible door handles on the lower cabinet doors, which are far too wide. There's no kick space at floor level below the cabinets. The countertop is empty except for a few dishes. No range, cooktop, oven, fridge or appliance of any kind, large or small, is visible. There's no dishwashing liquid visible.
The single kitchen window above the sink is open and appears wider than the maximum reasonable width for a double hung window. The view of the yard and another part of the house outside the window appears normal, unlike the chaos and implausibility in the kitchen.
The mother may be wearing heels, and the drawing looks out of the 1950's.
In 10 years I'll try again and compare.
--Percy

Replies to this message:
 Message 2 by Stile, posted 02-09-2021 8:38 AM Percy has seen this message but not replied

  
Stile
Member
Posts: 4295
From: Ontario, Canada
Joined: 12-02-2004


(1)
Message 2 of 5 (884307)
02-09-2021 8:38 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by Percy
02-07-2021 11:06 AM


Percy writes:
The two examples of impaired writing are pretty bad. I would consider anyone who wrote like that already impaired, but according to the article the people who wrote that way presented as normal. That hardly seems possible.
I reviewed the article, but couldn't find the exact wording of the question that was presented for the participants.
This is all I could find:
As part of it, they took a writing test before any of them had developed Alzheimer’s that asks subjects to describe a drawing of a boy standing on an unsteady stool and reaching for a cookie jar on a high shelf while a woman, her back to him, is oblivious to an overflowing sink.
What I'm wondering is "how clear was it made that the answer should be in essay-writing format?"
That is, if someone gave me that drawing and asked me to "describe it" - I may very well make some point-form notes as in the "missing auxiliary verbs, articles, punctuation" example.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by Percy, posted 02-07-2021 11:06 AM Percy has seen this message but not replied

  
jar
Member (Idle past 394 days)
Posts: 34026
From: Texas!!
Joined: 04-20-2004


(1)
Message 3 of 5 (884308)
02-09-2021 9:26 AM


If I was asked to describe that picture I doubt that I'd even come close to any of those issues but concentrate on what the girl is saying to both of the other people; in other words creating the context rather than reporting the context.
But then folk have labeled me as an Abbi for decades.

My Website: My Website

Replies to this message:
 Message 4 by Phat, posted 02-09-2021 10:16 AM jar has replied

  
Phat
Member
Posts: 18262
From: Denver,Colorado USA
Joined: 12-30-2003
Member Rating: 1.1


Message 4 of 5 (884309)
02-09-2021 10:16 AM
Reply to: Message 3 by jar
02-09-2021 9:26 AM


WTF is Abbi?
Well I just had to look up "Abbi" but was unable to find anything descriptive except this: Abbi
Perhaps I already have Alzheimer's.

"A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." ~Mark Twain "
***
far from science having buried God, not only do the results of science point towards his existence, but the scientific enterprise itself is validated by his existence.- Dr.John Lennox
The whole war between the atheist and the theist comes down to this: the atheist believes a 'what' created the universe; the theist believes a 'who' created the universe.
- Criss Jami, Killo
The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of a doubt, what is laid before him. Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God is Within You
(1894).

This message is a reply to:
 Message 3 by jar, posted 02-09-2021 9:26 AM jar has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 5 by jar, posted 02-09-2021 12:36 PM Phat has not replied

  
jar
Member (Idle past 394 days)
Posts: 34026
From: Texas!!
Joined: 04-20-2004


(3)
Message 5 of 5 (884312)
02-09-2021 12:36 PM
Reply to: Message 4 by Phat
02-09-2021 10:16 AM


Re: WTF is Abbi?

My Website: My Website

This message is a reply to:
 Message 4 by Phat, posted 02-09-2021 10:16 AM Phat has not replied

  
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