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Abstract:
Abstract: Shallice has proposed that cognitive schemata
support the organization of activities of daily life and that their
selection depends on two distinct cognitive processes, a controlled
one (Supervisory attentional system or SAS) and one which is more
automatic (contention scheduling or CS). This project aimed to
explore the cognitive processes in the organization of behavior. To
this effect, 10 patients with frontal lobe lesions after a mild to
moderate head injury were compared to 10 normal controls with a
neuropsychological test battery and a script generation task as
well as a realistic simulation of a complex activity (preparing a
meal). Though often in the normal range, the patients manifested
anomalies in the organization of behavior, particularly in the meal
preparation task. The patients manifested planning deficits on
several tasks. While small sequences of actions were easily
produced, large action sets could not be correctly executed. This
suggests an impairment of the SAS and preservation of the
CS.
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