Topic Shift in the Elderly with Alzheimer’s Based on Crow's Model

The present study aims to investigate the topic shift in the discourse of the senile dementia of the Alzheimerchr  type within the framework of Crow   model (1983) based on Neurolinguistics approach. The methodological nature of this quantitative research was ex post facto; and the statistical population included 20 subjects (10 senile dementia of the Alzheimerchr  type subjects and 10 normal elderly subjects). To determine the level of dementia, the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale was performed on the subjects. Thus, the subjects with the score (0.5 ≤ X< 2) were selected. Then, the subjects answered the questions about their families, daily activities, and Eid-e Nowruz celebration for 10 minutes. Moreover, the utterances were recorded and transcribed. Also, the utterances were encoded and categorized respectively, according to Dijkstra’s et al. model (2004) and Crowchr  model (1983). Finally, the statistical results obtained with the use of independent t-test. The findings revealed a significant difference of the topic shift (P=0.001) and the topic maintenance (P=0.01) in the discourse of both senile dementia of the Alzheimerchr  type and normal elderly subjects, in such a way that both the topic shift and the topic maintenance occurred within turn and across turn. The results showed the topic shift, that occurs more often within turn, has much more frequency in the senile dementia of the Alzheimerchr  type subjects’ discourse; and also, the topic initiation has the most frequency, and the most important Reason for Shift was related to Failure to Continue.