AMPER project to improve life for people with dementia

Memory loss in people with Alzheimer’s Disease occurs in reverse chronological order, whereby pockets of long-term memory can remain accessible even as the disease advances. Due to the memory loss and resulting difficulties communicating with others, people with dementia often struggle with decreased confidence and depression.

Through an EPSRC-funded project named ‘Agent-based Memory Prosthesis to Encourage Reminiscing’ (AMPER), researchers at Heriot-Watt and Strathclyde University aim to develop an agent with a novel human-like autobiographical memory model that tells stories to encourage reminiscing.

“The basic idea of the project is that we can support reminiscence therapy,” said principal investigator Prof. Ruth Aylett, professor of computer science at Heriot-Watt, whose academic background is in robotics and AI with a particular focus on how interaction with robots can support people.

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“Reminiscence therapy is a way of coordinated storytelling with an elderly person with dementia, in which you exercise their early memories which tend to be retained much longer than more recent ones, and produce an interesting interactive experience for them, often using supporting materials — so you might use photographs for instance.”