| The ability to solve everyday problems directly related to the independence andautonomy of each individual life, each person is an important condition for survival andsocial adaptation. For older people, the ability to independently solve problemsappropriately faced in everyday life is very important. It’s reasonable to assume thatolder adults’cognition might be maintained or promoted through training. However,whether the ability to solve everyday problems can be enhanced or not is stillquestionable for older people. Thus, the present study aims at examine the plasticity ofthe ability to solve everyday problems in later life.Overall,86community-dwelling older adults, ranging in age from60to83years,participated in this study. For the baseline test, primary mental ability tests, observedtasks of daily living test (OTDL) were administered to all the participants. There were66participants in the experimental condition (cognitive training). For this condition,each participant received five60-minute sessions of training over a nine-week period.There were20participants in the control group condition and these participants receivedno additional training after baseline test. All the participants completed a post-trainingtest using the same measures at baseline.In this study, the OTDL test and its four subtests were used to examine the trainingeffects. And, the primary mental ability tests, including spatial working memory, digitalworking memory and reasoning, were used to explore the transferring effects of training.Repeated MANOVA analyses, with groups and time (pre-training vs. post-training) asindependent variables, were conducted for performances on OTDL and its four subtestsrespectively. A significant group and time interaction was found for one of the foursubtests (F=3.00, p=0.020) but not for others and OTDL. In conclusion, everydayproblem solving would appear to be improved through a short-term trainingintervention. |
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