The Senior Odyssey: A Test of the Engagement Hypothesis of Cognitive Aging

描述（由申请人提供）：参与假设表明，与年龄相关的认知能力下降可能在一定程度上被以社会和智力参与为标志的生活方式所缓解。根据这一观点，在面对定义不清的问题时需要选择和决策的环境促进了心理灵活性。假设环境为有效的解决方案提供了奖励，并为自我导向的活动创造了机会，复杂的环境继续促进资源分配给智力活动，从而扩大了可用于解决新问题的智力技能，并以各种方式增强认知和福祉。然而，支持这一观点的证据主要基于相关数据，这些数据受到其他解释的影响，因此不清楚参与是否会增强认知功能-或者智力能力更强的人是否倾向于参与。培训研究（例如，ACTIVE试验，Ball等人，2002），其中认知和智力能力被选择性地训练，已经发现很少或没有产生向其他能力的转移;此外，专门知识的研究（例如，Morrow等人，1994年）显示非常狭窄的经验的影响。目前的项目是一个转化研究计划，试图通过实验操纵生活方式的实质性复杂性为六个月的时间来连接这两个文献。参与者将被随机分配到一个参与计划，其中受试者参与协作解决问题和识字活动（我们对实质上复杂环境的操作），纵横字谜/脑筋急转弯控制，或等待列表控制。参与体验是仿照现有的计划，奥德赛的心灵，为儿童和年轻人（通过大学年龄）开发;这种现有的社会结构提供了扩大规模的潜力，以便为老年人提供智力和社会刺激的机会。认知的前测和后测组合（例如，速度，执行功能，流畅性），指示倾向的测量，自我调节的有效性（例如，正念、自我效能）和活动（例如，Hultsch活动量表，白天重建法）将使我们能够检验这样一个假设，即这种形式的参与可以增强认知功能和自我调节能力，在这种情况下，可能会发现准备转化为实践。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The engagement hypothesis suggests that age-related declines in cognition may to some extent be mitigated by a lifestyle marked by social and intellectual engagement. According to this view, contexts that require choice and decision-making in the face of ill-defined problems promote mental flexibility. Assuming that the environment provides rewards for effective solutions and creates opportunities for self-directed activity, complex environments continue to promote the allocation of resources toward intellectual activity, thereby expanding the repertoire of intellectual skills available to solve new problems, and to augment cognition and well-being in a variety of ways. Evidence for this idea, however, is primarily based on correlational data, which is subject to other interpretations, making it unclear whether engagement enhances cognitive function - or whether more intellectually capable individuals are prone to engagement. Training studies (e.g., the ACTIVE trials, Ball et al., 2002), in which cognitive and intellectual abilities are selectively trained, have been found to produce little or no transfer to other abilities; furthermore, studies of expertise (e.g., Morrow et al., 1994) show very narrow effects of experience. The current project is a translational research program, which attempts to bridge these two literatures by experimentally manipulating the substantive complexity of lifestyle for a six-month period. Participants will be randomly assigned to a program of engagement in which subjects participate in collaborative problem solving and literacy activities (our operationalization of a substantively complex environment), to a crossword puzzle / brainteaser control, or to a wait-list control. The engagement experience is modeled on an existing program, Odyssey of the Mind, developed for children and young adults (through college-aged); this existing social structure offers potential for scaling up so as to afford opportunities for intellectual and social stimulation for elders. A pretest and posttest battery of cognitive (e.g., speed, executive functions, fluency), dispositional measures indicating, self-regulatory effectiveness (e.g., mindfulness, self-efficacy), and activity (e.g., Hultsch Activity Scale, Day Reconstruction Method) will allow us to test the hypothesis that this form of engagement can augment cognitive function and self-regulatory capacity, in a context which may find ready translation into practice.