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

描述（由申请人提供）：参与假说表明，与年龄相关的认知能力下降在某种程度上可以通过以社交和智力参与为标志的生活方式来缓解。根据这一观点，在面对不明确的问题时，需要选择和决策的环境会促进心理灵活性。假设环境为有效的解决方案提供奖励，并为自我导向的活动创造机会，那么复杂的环境将继续促进资源分配给智力活动，从而扩大了解决新问题所需的智力技能，并以各种方式增强认知和幸福感。然而，这一观点的证据主要是基于相关数据，这些数据受到其他解释的影响，因此不清楚是投入增强了认知功能，还是更聪明的人更倾向于投入。训练研究（例如，ACTIVE试验，Ball等人，2002年），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其他能力的转移；此外，对专业知识的研究（例如，Morrow et al., 1994）表明经验的影响非常有限。目前的项目是一个转化研究项目，它试图通过实验操纵六个月的生活方式的实质性复杂性来连接这两种文献。参与者将被随机分配到一个参与项目中，其中受试者参与协作解决问题和识字活动（我们对一个非常复杂的环境的操作化），一个填字游戏/脑筋急转弯控制，或一个等待列表控制。参与体验是仿照现有的一个名为“心灵的奥德赛”（Odyssey of The Mind）的项目，该项目是为儿童和年轻人（到大学生）开发的；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（例如，速度，执行功能，流畅性），性格指标，自我调节有效性（例如，正念，自我效能）和活动（例如，Hultsch活动量表，日重构法）的前测和后测，将使我们能够测试这种形式的参与可以增强认知功能和自我调节能力的假设，在一个可能找到准备转化为实践的环境中。

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.