Aging Lessons: Training gives elderly practical assistance
By Bruce Bower
Sessions aimed at improving memory, reasoning, or visual concentration in healthy elderly people yield notable cognitive returns, even 5 years later, a long-term study suggests. The training largely protected the participants from age-related declines in the ability to perform everyday tasks such as preparing meals, doing housework, and managing money.
A handful of booster sessions in reasoning or visual concentration, administered about 1 year and 3 years after the initial sessions, offered an even better defense against cognitive losses that interfere with daily activities, says a team led by psychologist Sherry L. Willis of Pennsylvania State University in State College.