with People with Alzheimer’s Disease

Studies of elementary cognitive functions in people with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) do not reveal a variety of intact remaining abilities. Elucidating the subjective experience of such persons is fundamentally important in (1) having a more informed understanding of the effects of AD on persons, and (2) finding ways to enhance their quality of life regardless of where they live. Advantages of engaging people with AD as research collaborators include (1) what we can learn about psychosocial aspects of their subjective experience, and (2) how, by supporting aspects of their selfhood, we can enhance the quality of their lives. For more than three decades, researchers have studied the effects of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) on elementary cognitive functions such as aspects of memory, attention, information-processing, restricted aspects of language use, sensory and motor function and the like by employing “traditional ” investigative strategies. Thus, we have come to understand AD in terms of its effects on cognitive functions that are usually, according to experimental designs and neuropsychological tests, studied independently of one another. Researchers often use “group ” data wherein the average scores for people with AD are compared, statistically, with those of a normal control group. Often