Older adults catch up to younger adults on a learning and memory task that involves collaborative social interaction

Post-collaborative benefits: A meta-analysis of the effect of collaboration on subsequent individual retrieval

Collaboration has an essential role in memory, and how to appropriately use it to affect individual memory positively is a matter of concern. The meta-analysis generally assessed the effect of collaboration on subsequent individual retrieval, registered on the PROSPERO platform and adhering to the PRISMA guidelines, using the Web of Science, Science Direct, CNKI and WanFang databases with post-collaborative memory as the main subject, screened studies published up to December 31, 2023, a total of 64 studies with 101 effect sizes, including 13,398 participants from 11 countries. Heterogeneity test, sensitivity analysis, subgroup analysis and meta-regression analysis were performed on the included studies, while publication bias was assessed. The results found that collaboration improves subsequent individual retrieval memory more than individuals, and collaboration has a moderate facilitating effect on subsequent individual retrieval. Group size, material category, category size, collaboration phase, collaboration approach, task process and test method were among the moderating variables. The study emphasizes the role of collaboration in cognition and demonstrates the post-collaborative benefits. The conclusions are of value for developing methods to improve individual memory.

MEM&SO protocol: understanding the determinants of social learning in neurodegenerative diseases

BACKGROUND

People with neurodegenerative diseases may have difficulty learning new information, owing to their cognitive impairments. Teaching them techniques for learning in social contexts could alleviate this difficulty. The present study will examine the performances of patients with Alzheimer's disease and patients with the semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia on a memory test administered in three social contexts. The protocol will make it possible to identify determinants of social interactions, social abilities, cognition, and personality that can explain the potentially beneficial effect of social context on learning in these patients.

METHODS

Thirty dyads (patient with primary memory impairment who meets criteria for Alzheimer's disease paired with caregiver), 16 dyads (patient meeting criteria for semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia paired with caregiver), and 46 dyads (healthy controls with no cognitive complaints) will be recruited. A nonverbal memory test (social memory task) will be administered to each dyad in three different social contexts (presence-only, observation, collaboration). Patients and healthy controls will also undergo a neuropsychological assessment to measure social (interactions and abilities), cognitive and personality aspects. Patients will be compared with controls on differential social scores calculated between the presence-only and collaboration contexts, and between the presence-only and observation contexts. A multiple comparative case study will be conducted to identify social, cognitive and personality variables that potentially explain the differential scores in the collaboration and observation contexts.

DISCUSSION

For the first time, memory will be assessed in patients with Alzheimer's disease and patients with the semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia in three different contexts (presence-only, observation, collaboration). The multiple comparative case study will make it possible to identify the determinants of memory performance in the social context, in order to create the most beneficial learning context for individual patients, according to their profile.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

This study was approved by the Ile de France XI institutional review board (2022-A00198-35), and registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (no. NCT05800028), on April 27, 2023.

Collaborative learning of new information in older age: a systematic review

Ageing is accompanied by a multitude of changes in cognitive abilities, which in turn affect learning. Learning collaboratively may benefit older adults by negating some of these age-related changes. However, studies on collaborative learning in older age differ in their methodology and findings. This systematic review provides an overview of the current research on collaborative learning in older age, exploring what factors influence collaborative learning in this age group. The titles and abstracts of imported 6629 works were screened, as well as four works added manually, which resulted in 29 studies. These studies were conducted across five countries (Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland and Belgium) between 1993 and 2023. Most studies were quantitative with a non-randomized (n = 16) design. Of the 29 studies, almost all studied collaboration in pairs (n = 28). The results suggest that the benefits of collaborating in older age may depend on the type of learning material, that familiarity between partners does not affect learning, and that age differences appear to decrease or disappear when older adults are provided with adequate time or trials. In addition, this systematic review identifies several gaps in the literature that future research should investigate further. This study was preregistered prior to its commencement on 21 January 2022. The accepted Stage 1 manuscript, unchanged from the point of in-principle acceptance, may be viewed at https://osf.io/tj4w7/. The data and materials of this study can be found at https://osf.io/8xvqf/.

The aging mind: A complex challenge for research and practice

Cognitive decline as part of mental ageing is typically assessed with standardized tests; below-average performance in such tests is used as an indicator for pathological cognitive aging. In addition, morphological and functional changes in the brain are used as parameters for age-related pathological decline in cognitive abilities. However, there is no simple link between the trajectories of changes in cognition and morphological or functional changes in the brain. Furthermore, below-average test performance does not necessarily mean a significant impairment in everyday activities. It therefore appears crucial to record individual everyday tasks and their cognitive (and other) requirements in functional terms. This would also allow reliable assessment of the ecological validity of existing and insufficient cognitive skills. Understanding and dealing with the phenomena and consequences of mental aging does of course not only depend on cognition. Motivation and emotions as well personal meaning of life and life satisfaction play an equally important role. This means, however, that cognition represents only one, albeit important, aspect of mental aging. Furthermore, creating and development of proper assessment tools for functional cognition is important. In this contribution we would like to discuss some aspects that we consider relevant for a holistic view of the aging mind and promote a strengthening of a multidisciplinary approach with close cooperation between all basic and applied sciences involved in aging research, a quick translation of the research results into practice, and a close cooperation between all disciplines and professions who advise and support older people.

Learning with friends and strangers: partner familiarity does not improve collaborative learning performance in younger and older adults

Collaborative learning with a familiar partner can reduce age-related differences in learning and memory compared to learning alone. This study compares younger and older adults' learning with familiar and unfamiliar partners to determine whether familiarity is beneficial for collaborative learning. Twenty-four younger adults aged 18-28 years and 24 older adults aged 60-80 years participated in familiar and unfamiliar pairs. Participants were asked to arrange abstract tangram shapes in a specific order on a grid over multiple trials; the directors' tangram cards were arranged in a specific order on the grid and this order was communicated to the matcher. Older adults initially took longer to complete the task, using more words to correctly arrange the tangrams. Over multiple trials, a learning effect was observed in both groups, although older adults did not perform with similar efficiency to younger adults. Familiarity had no effect on performance. These findings suggest that the familiarity of a partner does not affect learning outcomes in younger or older adults when learning in a social context. Collaborative learning may be beneficial for older adults, even if they do not know their learning partner, which may have implications for adult education and lifelong learning.

Older Adults' Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) Engagement Following COVID-19 and Its Impact on Access to Community, Information, and Resource Exchange: A Longitudinal, Qualitative Study

Following COVID-19, the CDC asked individuals to social distance and state and local authorities nationwide began issuing curfews and recommendations to “shelter-in-place.” Known to be more susceptible to the negative effects of COVID-19 and often coping with higher levels of social isolation, many worried that older adults’ mental health would suffer. While computer-mediated communication (CMC) is on the rise among older adults, whether and how older adults leverage the social benefits of CMC remains underexplored. This study assesses older adults’ CMC use after COVID and the impact of CMC engagement on access to connection, information, and resources. We follow 22 older adults over 6 weeks, using longitudinal qualitative surveys to study CMC use patterns and mental health outcomes. Results revealed that while older adults exhibited purpose-driven CMC engagement, limited integration into larger online communities restricted access to up-to-the-minute information, notably early in the pandemic. Longitudinal findings show progressively less engagement with online news and information, withdrawal from online social engagement, and a progressive relaxing of social distancing. This study sheds light on how best to reach older adults following disaster, and where older adults may be disadvantaged as social media becomes a modern “emergency broadcast system.”

What are friends for? The impact of friendship on communicative efficiency and cortisol response during collaborative problem solving among younger and older women

Conversation is a skilled activity that depends on cognitive and social processes, both of which develop through adulthood. We examined the effects of age and partner familiarity on communicative efficiency and cortisol reactivity. Younger and older women interacted with familiar or unfamiliar partners in a dyadic collaborative conversation task (N = 8 in each group). Regardless of age, referential expressions among familiar and unfamiliar partners became more efficient over time, and cortisol concentrations were lower for speakers interacting with familiar partners. These findings suggest that communicative effectiveness is largely preserved with age, as is the stress-buffering effect of a familiar partner.

Partner-Specific Communication Deficits in Individuals With Alzheimer's Disease

Purpose Speakers adjust referential expressions to the listeners' knowledge while communicating, a phenomenon called "audience design." While individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) show difficulties in discourse production, it is unclear whether they exhibit preserved partner-specific audience design. The current study examined if individuals with AD demonstrate partner-specific audience design skills. Method Ten adults with mild-to-moderate AD and 12 healthy older adults performed a referential communication task with two experimenters (E1 and E2). At first, E1 and participants completed an image-sorting task, allowing them to establish shared labels. Then, during testing, both experimenters were present in the room, and participants described images to either E1 or E2 (randomly alternating). Analyses focused on the number of words participants used to describe each image and whether they reused shared labels. Results During testing, participants in both groups produced shorter descriptions when describing familiar images versus new images, demonstrating their ability to learn novel knowledge. When they described familiar images, healthy older adults modified their expressions depending on the current partner's knowledge, producing shorter expressions and more established labels for the knowledgeable partner (E1) versus the naïve partner (E2), but individuals with AD were less likely to do so. Conclusions The current study revealed that both individuals with AD and the control participants were able to acquire novel knowledge, but individuals with AD tended not to flexibly adjust expressions depending on the partner's knowledge state. Conversational inefficiency and difficulties observed in AD may, in part, stem from disrupted audience design skills.

Components of an indirect cognitive reserve: a longitudinal assessment of community-dwelling older adults

Cognitive reserve enables individuals to preserve their cognition, despite a possible underlying brain pathology. The objective was to verify which components contribute to an indirect measurement of cognitive reserve in older adults, assessed longitudinally within a four-year interval. The sample was comprised of 64 older adults from the community. The following instruments were used: sociodemographic form; Mini-Mental State Examination; subtests from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale - Third Edition; Trail Making Test; Verbal Fluency Test (animal category); Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test; Beck Anxiety Inventory; and the Geriatric Depression Scale 15-item version. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed for the data analysis. The sample was predominantly composed of women (81.3%) and the mean age of the sample was 73.19 years (SD = 6.12). With respect to the variables related to cognitive reserve, it was found that anxiety was the predictor variable of more cognitive components: It was found that poorer cognitive performance is associated with anxiety, and this variable is negatively related to cognitive reserve, as well as to the age variable. Engaging in cognitively stimulating activities, education level and living with someone were deemed to be factors that help build cognitive reserve in older adults. Keywords: cognitive reserve; older adults; longitudinal.

An Age-Friendly University (AFU) assists with technology learning and social engagement among older adults and individuals with developmental disabilities

As an Age-Friendly University (AFU), University of Akron is striving to support lifelong learning. A collaborative research effort developed between aging researchers at the university and a government-sponsored pilot program aimed to provide learning opportunities for older adults (OA) and engagement for individuals with developmental disabilities (IDD). The present study assessed the success of a pilot program to increase comfort with technology and community engagement. OA and IDD participants met twice a month for 9 months to discuss how to use technology (e.g., an IPad). We assessed satisfaction, perceived changes in comfort with technology, perceived changes in connection with others, and motivations for participating with questionnaires and a structured interview. On average, participants reported very high satisfaction with the group, and moderate increases in comfort with technology and how connected they feel to others as a result of participating in the group. The most common motivations for participation were related to values, strengthening social ties, seeking to learn, and bringing joy to others. These findings suggest that the pilot was successful at improving community engagement. The involvement of the university in the assessment of this pilot program situates the university as an age-friendly partner for community efforts to support lifelong learning.

Cognitive Effects of Social Media Use: A Case of Older Adults

Research on the effects of social media use at older ages has largely focused on social benefits. Yet, participation in these new media forms may result in other favorable outcomes, such as improved cognitive functioning. Using a wait list-control design, this study examines the effects of social media engagement among novice adult social media users, aged 65 and older, in four cognitive domains: attention, processing speed, working memory, and inhibitory control. Baseline and multiple post-tests indicate improvement of intervention participants in inhibitory control. These findings demonstrate that the benefits of social media use at older ages extend beyond mere social engagement, and into other domains of everyday well-being.

Younger and older adults' collaborative recall of shared and unshared emotional pictures

Although a group of people working together recalls more items than any one individual, they recall fewer unique items than the same number of people working apart whose responses are combined. This is known as collaborative inhibition, and it is a robust effect that occurs for both younger and older adults. However, almost all previous studies documenting collaborative inhibition have used stimuli that were neutral in emotional valence, low in arousal, and studied by all group members. In the current experiments, we tested the impact of picture-stimuli valence, picture-stimuli arousal, and information distribution in modulating the magnitude of collaborative inhibition. We included both younger and older adults because there are age differences in how people remember emotional pictures that could modulate any effects of emotion on collaborative inhibition. Results revealed that when information was shared (i.e., studied by all group members), there were robust collaborative inhibition effects for both neutral and emotional stimuli for both younger and older adults. However, when information was unshared (i.e., studied by only a single group member), these effects were attenuated. Together, these results provide mixed support for the retrieval strategy disruption account of collaborative inhibition. Supporting the retrieval strategy disruption account, unshared study information was less susceptible to collaborative inhibition than shared study information. Contradicting the retrieval strategy disruption account, emotional valence and arousal did not modulate the magnitude of collaborative inhibition despite the fact that participants clustered the emotional, but not neutral, information together in memory.

Verbal play as a discourse resource in the social interactions of older and younger communication pairs

Verbal play, or the playful manipulation of elements of language, is a pervasive component of social interaction, serving important interpersonal functions. We analyzed verbal play in the interactional discourse of ten healthy younger pairs and ten healthy older pairs as they completed a collaborative referencing task. A total of 1,893 verbal play episodes were coded. While there were no group differences in verbal play frequency, age-related differences in the quality and function of these episodes emerged. While older participants engaged in more complex, extended, and reciprocal episodes that supported the social nature of communicative interactions (e.g., teasing), younger participants were more likely to engage in verbal play episodes for the purpose of successful task completion. Despite these age-related variations in the deployment of verbal play, verbal play is a robust interactional discourse resource in healthy aging, highlighting an element of human cognition that does not appear to decline with age.