Everyday Memory Intervention

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Evaluates an intervention designed to improve everyday memory function, contrasting people receiving the intervention with a group that receives traditional memory strategy training.

Detailed Description
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This project seeks to develop and validate a novel approach to training everyday memory functioning in older adults. The approach (1) trains people to use simple but effective memory skills that have broad applicability in everyday life and (2) shapes a set of skills and habits of mind that will increase the likelihood of effective use of skills and memory aids. It is based on a metacognitive perspective on self-regulation in cognitively demanding situations and informed by recent theories about how suboptimal habit patterns can be altered. The approach has not yet been used in an everyday memory intervention in high-functioning, community-dwelling older adults. The proposed research validates ecological momentary assessment methods to get actual behavioral measures of forgetting in everyday life. It then uses these procedures in a randomized experiment that contrasts the everyday memory intervention group with a traditional memory-strategy training group. The hypothesis is that the everyday memory training intervention will reduce everyday memory errors and memory complaints, whereas the memory strategy training will alter strategy use and memory performance, with little cross-over effect. The hypothesized pattern will establish the explicit benefits of our everyday memory intervention procedures and demonstrate the limitation of standard memory training for that purpose.

Official Title
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Enhancing Older Adults' Everyday Memory Function

Conditions
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Aging

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Everyday Metacognitive Memory Intervention
* Behavioral: Memory Strategy Control Intervention


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: 70 - 85 years of age in fair to good health free of major neurocognitive impairment English speaking endorsed Smartphone and computer users (or willing to learn) Exclusion Criteria: diagnosis of any major neurological problems (e.g. stroke, Parkinson's disease, dementia) 1.5 SD below age-normed mean (or lower) on the TICS low computer and smart phone literacy and poor self-rated health.

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 70 Years
Maximum Age: 85 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
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Everyday Metacognitive Memory<br>Training in techniques for managing memory demands in everyday life | Behavioral: Everyday Metacognitive Memory Intervention<br>* Provides training in use of techniques and procedures to enhance proactive self-regulatory control over everyday memory demands, including strategies for learning information, planning for meeting everyday goals, and monitoring of efficacy of goal pursuit.<br>|
| Active Comparator: Memory Strategy Control<br>Trains the use of memory strategies for learning new associations and concepts | Behavioral: Memory Strategy Control Intervention<br>* Trains use of standard mnemonic techniques such as imagery and sentence generation for learning new associations and organizational and distinctiveness-based strategies for learning sets of items (e.g., word lists).<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Everyday Memory Failures | Frequency count of reported memory failures from EMA & daily diaries; requires qualitative coding to identify eligible events and avoid duplicate reports | Two years | 
| Everyday Memory Successes | Frequency count of reported everyday memory successes from EMA & daily diaries; requires qualitative coding to identify eligible events and avoid duplicate reports | Two years | 
| Frequency count of reported memory failures from EMA & daily diaries | Frequency count of reported memory failures from EMA & daily diaries | Two years | 
| Everyday Cognition Simulation Task: ATM Task | Computerized task to simulate use of an ATM machine. Measure: number of correct responses and total time on task | Two years | 
| Czaja Everyday Cognition Simulation Task: Prescription Refill Task | Computerized task to simulate use of an automated telephone program to refill prescriptions. Measure: Number of correct responses and total time on task | Two years | 
| Free recall test | Computerized task to present 30 concrete nouns, 6 from 5 taxonomic categories (Hultsch, Hertzog, Dixon, & Small, 1998) | Two years | 
| Associative recall test | Computerized task to present 40 concrete-concrete associatively unrelated noun pairs (Hertzog, Sinclair, & Dunlosky, 2010) | Two years | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| MFQ memory complaint | Summative Likert scale measuring frequency of reported memory problems for specific types of problems | Two years | 
| PBMI Specific MSE | Summative Likert scale measuring self-rated memory for specific types of memory | Two years | 
| PBMI Memory Control | Summative Likert scale measuring self-rated control over everyday | Two years | 
| MCQ Internal | Summative Likert scale obtaining self-rated frequency of use of internal mnemonic strategies | Two years | 
| MCQ External | Summative Likert scale obtaining self-rated frequency of use of external memory aids | Two years | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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external aids, everyday memory, ecological momentary assessment, memory complaint, metacognition, mnemonics