The primary aim of this research is to examine the long-term effects of cognitive training in an elderly sample, via a longitudinal follow-up of subjects (N = 404) participating in a program of training research conducted in 1976-1981. Training maintenance effects will be assessed for two fluid intelligence abilities, Figural Relations and Inductive Reasoning, which were the focus of the previous training studies. Following an initial assessment of training maintenance effects, one-half of the training sample will receive two training """"""""refresher"""""""" sessions. A second (posttest) assessment following these """"""""refresher"""""""" sessions will examine the extent to which brief retraining procedures can reactivate previous training performance levels. Pre- and posttest assessment will examine the breadth of training effects across a hierarchy of fluid-crystallized ability measures. Effects will be assessed at multiple levels, including factor scores, individual ability measure scores, error pattern components, and under time/power conditions. The long-term effects of cognitive training on current real life tasks performance will be examined by inclusion of an ecological validity measure in the assessment battery.
A second aim of the research is to examine the structural stability of ability relationships over a seven-year period from young-old to old-old age, and to identify intellectual and personality antecedents of cognitive and personality change across this age period. Subjects who were previously administered a broad battery of ability, personality, and ecologial validity measures will be readministered this battery. Structural stability of ability relationships and antecedent-consequent relationships will be assessed within the framework of the fluid-crystallized intelligence model. Personality dimensions examined include the transsituational assessment of locus of control, and the context-specific assessment of attributions and perceptions regarding intellectual aging. Seven-year longitudinal change in performance of real life tasks will also be examined.
| Willis, S L (1987) Cognitive training and everyday competence. Annu Rev Gerontol Geriatr 7:159-88 |
