Moderation of age-related cognitive decline in older adults
Prior research has demonstrated a general decline in cognitive performance with age, especially in Fluid Intelligence. This study sought to find a way to slow, halt, or reverse the age-related decline in Fluid Intelligence. Participants aged 50 and older with no prior experience working crossword puzzles worked crossword puzzles for 4 hours per week for 8 weeks. The Constant Group worked easy puzzles for the whole 8 weeks while the Dynamic Group worked easy puzzles for 2 weeks, intermediate puzzles for 3 weeks, and hard puzzles for 3 weeks. All participants were pretested and posttest on 2 measures of Crystallized Intelligence and 4 measures of Fluid Intelligence. Data were analyzed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) with age as the covariate. Although both groups showed improvement in cognitive performance on most measures results did not reach statistical significance. Trends in the data did not suggest any difference in the scheduling of the intervention task. Results and data trends were interpreted in light of the problem of low N because only 11 participants completed the study.
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