Five years of support are requested by the UAB to conduct clinical trials involving cognitive training in elderly persons to see if it improves their everyday competence.
The aim of the proposed research is to examine the effects of a cognitive intervention, specifically improvement of processing speed through a set of tasks known as the """"""""Useful Field of View,"""""""" on the everyday functional abilities of older adults. Several recent reports have described perceptual and cognitive interventions have resulted in the improved functioning of older adults. These measurements include improving their scores on intellectual abilities, processing speed, perceptual abilities, and memory. Previous research has indicated that the training has a positive effect on improving driving performance in older adults. Declines in cognitive functioning (including such measures as speed of processing) have had an adverse effect on activities considered essential to independent living (e.g., working, driving, household and medication management, shopping skills, telephone use, personal financial skills, etc.). Recent studies also indicate that a reduction in these everyday competence tasks is related to increased incidences of hospitalization, need for formal care, and mortality. Since improvement of cognitive function appears to produce improved competence measures, as it has with driving competence, it may also help individuals maintain their personal autonomy. These findings provide the impetus for evaluating a cognitive intervention on a large scale across a broad spectrum of everyday outcome measures.
The specific aims of this project are to extend previous work on the speed-of-processing intervention to evaluate its effectiveness in preventing or postponing loss of independence, need for formal care, or other major restrictions in quality of life among older
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