Search results for ‘Subject term:"older people"’ Sort:
Results 1 - 1 of 1
Self-help memory training for healthy older adults in a residential care center: specific and transfer effects on performance and beliefs
- Authors:
- CAVALLINI Elena, et al
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 30(8), 2015, pp.870-880.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Objectives: This study investigated the efficacy of self-help training for healthy older adults in a residential care centre on memory tasks they practiced (associative and object list learning tasks) and any transfer to other tasks (grocery lists, face–name learning, figure–word pairing, word lists, and text learning). Transfer effects on everyday life (using a problem-solving task) and on participants' beliefs regarding their memory (efficacy and control) were also examined. With the aid of a manual, the training adopted a learner-oriented approach that directly encouraged learners to generalize strategic behaviour to new tasks. The maintenance of any training benefits was assessed after 6 months. Method: The study involved 34 residential care centre residents (aged 70–99 years old) with no cognitive impairments who were randomly assigned to two programmes: the experimental group followed the self-help training program, whereas the active control group was involved in general cognitive stimulation activities. Results: Training benefits emerged in the trained group for the tasks that were practiced. Transfer effects were found in memory and everyday problem-solving tasks and on memory beliefs. The effects of training were generally maintained in both practiced and unpracticed memory tasks. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that learner-oriented self-help training enhances memory performance and memory beliefs, in the short term at least, even in residential care centre residents. (Edited publisher abstract)