Hertzog Christopher, Pearman Ann, Lustig Emily, Hughes MacKenzie
School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, United States.
Front Psychol. 2021 Jan 7;11:560056. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.560056. eCollection 2020.
Traditional memory strategy training interventions improve older adults' performance on tests of episodic memory, but have limited transfer to episodic memory tasks, let alone to everyday memory. We argue that an alternative approach is needed to assist older adults to compensate for age-related cognitive declines and to maintain functional capacity in their own natural ecologies. We outline a set of principles regarding how interventions can successfully train older adults to increase successful goal pursuit to reduce risks of everyday memory failures. We argue that training individuals to use metacognitive self-regulatory strategies to proactively manage formulation and pursuit of daily goals can compensate for age-related cognitive changes and increase the likelihood of goal attainment. We then describe an intervention approach that instantiates these principles in a multi-modal intervention that is unique in its three-phase approach: (1) individualized assessment of an individual's current approaches to self-regulation; (2) training memory strategies, self-management skills, and new habits of mind in a group training context; and (3) a behavioral shaping period in which individuals receive coaching and feedback on their efforts to use trained procedures to improve everyday cognition. A recently completed study conducted an initial test of the intervention, with highly encouraging results. We advocate further efforts to replicate, extend, and fine-tune this type of intervention. The ultimate goal is to be able to deliver the intervention in a way that increases its potential reach, including to subpopulations of older adults at risk for everyday cognitive impairments.
传统的记忆策略训练干预措施可提高老年人在情景记忆测试中的表现，但对情景记忆任务的迁移作用有限，更不用说对日常记忆的作用了。我们认为需要一种替代方法来帮助老年人弥补与年龄相关的认知衰退，并在他们自身的自然环境中维持功能能力。我们概述了一系列原则，说明干预措施如何能够成功地训练老年人增加成功的目标追求，以降低日常记忆失误的风险。我们认为，训练个体使用元认知自我调节策略来主动管理日常目标的制定和追求，可以弥补与年龄相关的认知变化，并增加目标实现的可能性。然后，我们描述了一种干预方法，该方法在一种多模式干预中体现了这些原则，这种干预在其三个阶段的方法上独具特色：（1）对个体当前自我调节方法进行个性化评估；（2）在小组训练环境中训练记忆策略、自我管理技能和新的思维习惯；（3）一个行为塑造阶段，在此阶段个体在努力运用训练过的程序来改善日常认知方面接受指导和反馈。最近完成的一项研究对该干预进行了初步测试，结果非常令人鼓舞。我们主张进一步努力复制、扩展和微调这种类型的干预。最终目标是以一种能够扩大其潜在覆盖面的方式来实施该干预，包括覆盖有日常认知障碍风险的老年亚群体。
