Elizabeth M. Zelinski

A Cognitive Training Program Based on Principles of Brain Plasticity: Results from the Improvement in Memory with Plasticity-based Adaptive Cognitive Training (IMPACT) Study

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the efficacy of a novel brain plasticity–based computerized cognitive training program in older adults and to evaluate the effect on untrained measures of memory and attention and participant‐reported outcomes.

Sixteen-year longitudinal and time lag changes in memory and cognition in older adults

The authors describe assessment of 16-year changes in memory and intellectual abilities in a sample of 106 adults ages 30-36 and 55-81 at baseline. Results suggest that there are reliable 16-year declines in list and test recall but not in recognition after age 55. Comparisons of predictions of change from the cross-sectional baseline sample indicated that longitudinal changes were either similar to or greater than predicted for those participants over the age of 60. Despite age differences in initial scores, a comparison of 2 cohorts in a time lag analysis showed that they did not differ in performance when they were in their 70s. These results suggest that age changes in list and text recall in older adults are due to age-related declines rather than to cohort differences and that age declines in recognition are not reliable.

Far transfer in cognitive training of older adults.

PURPOSE This article reviews the literature on far transfer effects in training of older adults. METHODS Adapting a taxonomy of transfer developed by Barnett and Ceci (2002), to rehabilitation or enhancement of existing cognitive skills; results of studies assessing transfer effects from training of memory, reasoning, UFOV, dual task performance, and complex training are classified. RESULTS Comparisons of the transfer outcomes of both strategy training and extended practice approaches suggest that far transfer has been observed. CONCLUSIONS Outcomes for strategy studies training memory have had less success than extended practice studies in obtaining far transfer. Reasons for this are discussed, as are suggestions for improved assessment of transfer outcomes.

Extended Practice and Aerobic Exercise Interventions Benefit Untrained Cognitive Outcomes in Older Adults: A Meta-Analysis

To examine whether therapeutic interventions of extended practice of cognitive tasks or aerobic exercise have led to significant improvement in untrained cognitive tasks.

Individual differences in 16-year memory changes.

The authors analyzed the role of individual differences in age, gender, and 16-year declines in reasoning and vocabulary as predictors of 16-year changes in text and list recall and recognition in 82 adults aged 55-81 years at baseline. Declines in reasoning as well as being older at baseline predicted declines in text recall. Male gender and declining in vocabulary predicted declines in list recall. There were no reliable predictors of declines in recognition. The findings suggest that changes in abilities, as well as age and gender, predict declines on memory tasks. However, the specific predictors varied across tasks.

DO MEDICAL CONDITIONS AFFECT COGNITION IN OLDER ADULTS

Analyses of a nationally representative sample who completed a list recall task (weighted n = 6,446) and 2 mental status tasks (weighted n = 6,646) were conducted to determine whether specific medical conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes as well as general health ratings predict cognitive performance in adults aged 70 to 103. Presence of stroke and poorer health ratings predicted poorer performance on the 3 tasks. Presence of diabetes predicted poorer performance on recall and 1 mental status task. Age interacted with medical conditions including high blood pressure and diabetes in predicting mental status, with condition-related deficits confined to the younger end of the age continuum. Global health ratings interacted with age, with poorer ratings associated with worse mental status in the younger participants. Findings suggest that stroke and diabetes are associated with cognitive deficits. Some deficits are more pronounced in younger old adults with high blood pressure and poorer health ratings.

Improvement in Memory with Plasticity‐Based Adaptive Cognitive Training: Results of the 3‐Month Follow‐Up

OBJECTIVES: To investigate maintenance of training effects of a novel brain plasticity–based computerized cognitive training program in older adults after a 3‐month no‐contact period.

Adult age differences in multiple cognitive functions: differentiation, dedifferentiation, or process-specific change?

Adult age differences in covariance structures of latent variables of vocabulary, list recall, speed, working memory, and text recall, were analyzed to test hypotheses of structural changes with age. There were baseline data from 613 men and women aged 30-97, data from a second wave of testing from 322 people, and complete longitudinal data from 289 people. There were age differences in the size but not configuration of factor loadings cross-sectionally but not longitudinally. There were no changes in factor standard deviations or covariances. Findings did not support models of dedifferentiation with age.

Memory for Prose and Aging: A Meta-Analysis

Research in memory processes in the elderly in the early 1980s was strongly influenced by research in experimental psychology establishing standardized methods for investigating memory for discourses. Previously, memory for prose was not studied; exceptions occurred (Gordon & Clark, 1974; Schneider, Gritz, & Jarvik, 1975; Taub, 1976) in which intuitive or verbatim approaches to scoring recall were used. When more objective methods of prose analysis were developed by various authors, notably Meyer (1975) and Kintsch (1974), investigators in aging began research programs to study memory for discourse.

Young and older adults' use of context in spatial memory.

We evaluated the hypothesis that older adults remember spatial information less well than younger adults because they use contextual information less effectively. Young and older adults studied schematic town maps on which structures were presented either simultaneously or successively and on which a network of streets was either present or absent. However, age did not interact with either contextual variable. Thus, we conclude that age differences in spatial memory do not arise from differences in the use of context.