Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Psychology
Document Type
Dissertation
Abstract
Decline in everyday functioning is core diagnostic criteria for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. While historically, MCI was considered a stage of generally persevered everyday functioning, it is now widely accepted that subtle though clinically meaningful changes in everyday function can be observed and are predictive of increased risk of future decline and conversion to dementia. Despite this, self and informant report questionnaires of everyday function largely fail to capture this subtle decline in those with MCI, while performance-based measures that may be able to capture this decline are rarely administered clinically due to their laborious administration. Performance-based measures of everyday functioning that utilize digital technologies have been proposed to be relatively quick though sensitive solution. The present study investigated predictive utility and psychometric properties of an emerging digital performance-based assessment of everyday functioning, the Virtual Kitchen Challenge (VKC), in a community sample of cognitively healthy and cognitively impaired older adults. A total of 40 older individuals (cognitively healthy n = 21, cognitively impaired n = 19) completed the VKC, as well as a gold-standard self-report measure of everyday functioning, a self-report measure of depression, and a brief battery of cognitive tests. Group-based analyses revealed that individuals with cognitive impairment perform significantly different on the VKC, both in terms of overt errors and more subtle indices (i.e., micro-errors, time to completion, distractor object interactions). VKC performance across various indices was found to relate to self-reported everyday functioning. VKC performance indices were robustly associated with processing speed, executive function, and memory, though relationships with other domains of cognition were also observed. VKC performance also related to depression, warranting future research on depression and performance-based functioning. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed.
Date
7-14-2025
Recommended Citation
Divers, Ross M., "The Virtual Kitchen Challenge: Psychometric Validation in Cognitively Healthy and Impaired Older Adults" (2025). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 6842.
https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/6842
Committee Chair
Matthew Calamia
DOI
10.31390/gradschool_dissertations.6842