What Makes People Better at Describing Photographs?

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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This study is being conducted to learn more about how various personal and situational characteristics are related to the ability to provide verbal descriptions of photographs. Participants will perform a brief mental exercise, then see three photographs with instructions to describe each thoroughly. Participants will also complete several other surveys and measures. Collected data will give researchers a better understanding of how different variables relate to speech production.

Detailed Description
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This study is being conducted to learn more about how various personal and situational characteristics are related to the the ability to provide verbal descriptions of photographs. Adult participants ages 18-30 and 65-80 will participate in videoconference calls during which they perform a brief mental exercise, then see three photographs with instructions to describe each thoroughly. Descriptions are to be 30 to 60 seconds in length and are audio recorded for later scoring. Participants will also complete several other surveys and measures, including some about anxiety, mindfulness, vocabulary, and demographics. Participation will take approximately 40 to 60 minutes. Collected data will be de-identified, and the aggregate data will give researchers a better understanding of how individuals' personality and cognitive traits and the mental exercise performed before the study relate to peoples' speech production performance.

Official Title
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What Makes People Better at Describing Photographs?

Conditions
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Healthy Aging

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Mental Exercise


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: fluent speakers of English ages 18-30 or ages 65-80 Exclusion Criteria: -

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 80 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Basic Science
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Interventional Model Description: Participants are randomly assigned to one of two mental exercises before performing a picture description task and completing several other personality and cognitive measures
Masking: Single


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Mental Exercise A<br>Participants follow instructions on a 10-min audio clip | Behavioral: Mental Exercise<br>* Participants perform a 10 minute mental exercise<br>|
| Active Comparator: Mental Exercise B<br>Participants follow instructions on a 10-min audio clip | Behavioral: Mental Exercise<br>* Participants perform a 10 minute mental exercise<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Speech Production Performance | Various indices about speech production fluency (e.g., speech rate, pauses, self-corrections) and description content (e.g, what topics are covered) will be scored from the transcribed speech. These outcomes are not measured via a specific tool or scale. | During the 40 to 60 minute experimental session | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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speech production, cognitive aging