An Assessment of Cognitive Improvement Training Among Mid-life Individuals

Summary

Many health-relevant decisions involve intertemporal (now vs. later) tradeoffs. Extensive literature indicates that many negative health and financial consequences suffered in mid-life are linked to adversity and disadvantage during early developmental periods of life. Individuals who continue to engage in these types of unhealthy behaviors despite awareness of the health consequences are exhibiting an inability to delay gratification.

Delay discounting (DD) is quantified in human studies by determining the rate at which an individual discounts a delayed reward, while executive function (EF) is defined as the set of cognitive processes that are responsible for helping individuals manage life tasks and achieve goals. This research will attempt to reduce DD via EF training in a population of mid-life individuals with risk factors established during early-life disadvantage.

Conditions

• Delay Discounting

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Sequenced Recall of Digits--Auditory

Auditory digit sequence AT memory component.

BEHAVIORAL

Sequenced Reverse Recall of Digits--Auditory

Reversed auditory digit sequence AT memory component.

BEHAVIORAL

Sequenced Recall of Words--Visual

Visual word sequence AT memory component

BEHAVIORAL

Verbal Memory--Visual

word recognition AT memory component

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Maryland, Baltimore

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Florida

  collaborator OTHER

• Michigan State University

  collaborator OTHER

• National Institute on Aging (NIA)

  collaborator NIH

• University of Kansas

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Richard Yi, PhD · University of Kansas

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

FACTORIAL

Eligibility

Min Age

40 Years

Max Age

60 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2014-11-01

Primary Completion

2024-05-31

Completion

2024-07-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations