Objective The natural learning experience from infancy to emerging adulthood, when considerable cognitive and functional growth is observed, mandates learning multiple real-world skills simultaneously. The present studies investigated whether learning multiple real-world skills simultaneously is possible in older adults and also whether it improves both their cognitive abilities (working memory, episodic memory, and cognitive control) and functional independence. Method Over two studies (15 and 27 participants), older adults learned at least three new skills (e.g., Spanish, drawing, music composition) simultaneously for 3 months. Participants completed cognitive and functional assessments before, during, and after the intervention in both studies. Participants were recruited sequentially for an intervention or no-contact control group in Study 1, and Study 2 included only an intervention group, who also completed assessments 4–6 weeks prior to the start of the intervention (i.e., they served as their own control group). Results Results from both studies show that simultaneously learning multiple skills is feasible and potentially beneficial for healthy older adults. Learning multiple skills simultaneously increased cognitive abilities in older adults by midpoint of the intervention, to levels similar to performance in a separate sample of middle-aged adults, 30 years younger. Discussion Our findings demonstrate the feasibility and potential of conducting a real-world skill-learning intervention involving learning three novel skills with older adults. Our multiskill intervention may provide broad cognitive gains, akin to the benefits experienced earlier in the life span.

Regardless of age, making healthy lifestyle choices is prudent. Despite that, individuals of all ages sometimes have difficulty choosing the healthy option. We argue that individuals' view of the future and position in the life span affects their current lifestyle choices. We capture the multidimensionality of future thinking by assessing 3 types of future perspective. Younger and older men and women (N = 127) reported global future time perspective, future health perspective, and perceived importance of future health-related events. They also rated their likelihood of making healthy lifestyle choices. As predicted, older participants indicated greater intention to make healthy choices in their current life than did younger participants. Compared to younger participants, older participants reported shorter global future time perspective and anticipated worse future health but perceived future health-related events as more important. Having a positive view of one's future health and seeing future health-related events as important were related to greater intention to make healthy lifestyle choices, but greater global future time perspective was not directly related to healthy choices. However, follow-up analyses suggested that greater global future time perspective indirectly affected healthy choices via a more positive view of future health. None of these relations were moderated by age. Individuals' perspective on the future is shown to be an important multidimensional construct affecting everyday healthy lifestyle choices for both younger and older adults. Implications for encouraging healthy choices across the adult life span are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Low motivation to learn in undergraduate general education courses hinders learning. Research has identified strategies that increase motivation to learn before students are asked to learn content (e.g., outlining the utility of the course material for future careers). Extending this work, we propose that learning any material in a course may beget motivation to learn more, in line with the notion that the process of learning itself may spark curiosity and interest. Across three populations (college-aged individuals on mTurk, large public university students, and small private university students), we found that watching a TED Talk video (i.e., exposure to new information, learning) pertaining to any topic led to an increase in motivation to continue learning about that topic and other topics more generally. These results reveal a need to broaden models of motivation to consider the importance of exposure to content to increase motivation to learn.

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Growth mindset (belief in the malleability of intelligence) is a unique predictor of young learners’ increased motivation and learning, and may have broader implications for cognitive functioning. Its role in learning in older adulthood is unclear. As part of a larger longitudinal study, we examined growth mindset and cognitive functioning in older adults engaged in a 3-month multi-skill learning intervention that included growth mindset discussions. Before, during, and after the intervention, participants reported on their growth mindset beliefs and completed a cognitive battery. Study 1 indicated that intervention participants, but not control participants, increased their growth mindset during the intervention. Study 2 replicated these results and found that older adults with higher preexisting growth mindsets showed larger cognitive gains at posttest compared to those with lower preexisting growth mindsets. Our findings highlight the potential role of growth mindset in supporting positive learning cycles for cognitive gains in older adulthood.