Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience Aging Neuroscience
The role of basic motor control abilities in how cognitively healthy older adults learn to play the SF game was examined and performance improvements were largely specific to the previously trained mnemonic technique.
Abstract
1989). The second goal of this study was to examine the role of basic motor control abilities in how cognitively healthy older adults learn to play the SF game. To this end, basic motor ability was assessed prior to SF game training with a short psychomotor task – i. The development of new cognitive interventions that can be effectively applied to compensate for age-related cognitive decline is of key concern to contemporary aging research (see Green and Bavelier, 2008; Hertzog et al., 2008; Papp et al., 2009 for reviews). Early cognitive interventions demonstrated improved performance on the previously trained task but many failed to demonstrate transfer of learning to other laboratory tasks or real-world activities. For example, a meta-analysis of 33 studies of cogni-tively healthy older adults trained in the use of some mnemonic technique (such as the method of loci or imagery) concluded that performance improvements were largely specific to the previously trained mnemonic technique (Verhaeghen et al., 1992). Later cognitive interventions trained cognitive control and more