In-Home Cognitive Training with Older Married Couples: Individual Versus Collaborative Learning

Abstract

Research has demonstrated that older adults' cognitive performance can be enhanced via formal intervention, as well as more informal intervention including collaboration or working with a partner. The current study investigated the effects of an inductive reasoning training program adapted for in-home use among older adults assigned to individual training (n = 30), collaborative training (n = 34), or a no-treatment control group (n = 34). The training consisted of 10 sessions, and all participants completed a pretest followed by a post-test 6 weeks later. Findings suggest that older adults could effectively "train themselves" without the guidance of a formal instructor. The results, however, did not indicate immediate added benefit in reasoning performance for collaborative versus individual training using the current reasoning program.

The impact of cognitive training and mental stimulation on cognitive and everyday functioning of healthy older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…There were no differences between the groups on three measures of executive function (Hastings and West, 2009;Margrett and Willis, 2006;Valentijn et al, 2005), or on four out of five measures of subjective cognitive performance (Hastings and West, 2009;Valentijn et al, 2005). However, participants who completed training within a group had significantly higher ratings of memory self-efficacy (Hastings and West, 2009).…”

“…In individual studies (table 1), significant improvements were reported for cognitive training compared to no intervention in 19 of 26 memory outcome measures (Bailey et al, 2010;Bottiroli and Cavallini, 2009;Buiza et al, 2008;Cavallini et al, 2010;Cheng et al, 2012;Craik et al, 2007;Edwards et al, 2002;Fairchild and Scogin, 2010;Hastings and West, 2009;Jackson et al, 2012;Mahncke et al, 2006;Valentijn et al, 2005), in seven out of 16 measures of executive function (Ball et al, 2002;Buiza et al, 2008;Cheng et al, 2012;Craik et al, 2007;Edwards et al, 2002;Jackson et al, 2012;Mahncke et al, 2006;Margrett and Willis, 2006), and on both composite measures of cognitive function (Cheng et al, 2012;Mahncke et al, 2006). One trial found that reasoning training resulted in less self-reported decline in everyday functioning compared to control (Ball et al, 2002;Willis et al, 2006).…”

Home-Based, Self-Administered Dyadic Cognitive Training for Healthy Older Adults: Feasibility Study

“…Additionally, peer support has been linked with improved health behaviors (e.g., Buman et al, 2011) and improved outcomes in mental health and substance use settings (Solomon, 2004). However, little is known about the influence of peers in cognitive interventions, particularly those that involve more than one or two sessions (Margrett & Willis, 2006). Collaboration in cognitive training.…”

“…In this study (Margrett & Willis, 2006), 98 participants (49 couples) aged 61-89 years (M = 71 years) were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions. Thirty participants were included in the individual cognitive training group, 34 in the couples collaborative cognitive training group, and 34 in the no-treatment control group.…”

“…The participants underwent 10 training sessions, with initial sessions supervised by researchers and some of the sessions videotaped. Assessment included measures of inductive reasoning that required sequencing and identifying patterns (Margrett & Willis, 2006).…”