Evaluation of a Novel Technology-Based Program Designed to Assess and Train Everyday Skills in Older Adults

Abstract

Background and Objectives Performance of everyday activities is often challenging for older adults. We evaluated a novel computer-based functional skills assessment and training (CFSAT) program, which includes simulations of everyday tasks (e.g., money and medication management). Research Design and Methods The sample included noncognitively impaired (NC) older adults (n = 51) and cognitively impaired (CI) older adults (n = 43), who ranged in age from 60 to 86 years (M = 73.12; SD = 6.06), were primarily female (90%), and ethnically diverse (23% Hispanic, 51% African American). Participants (stratified by cognitive status) were randomized to 1 of the 2 conditions training alone (CFSAT) or CFSAT with computerized cognitive training and trained up to 24 training sessions. Task performance, using measures of completion time and efficiency (accuracy/completion time), was evaluated at baseline, the final training session, and immediately posttraining with an alternate form of the CFSAT assessment. Results Both NC and CI participants demonstrated significant performance improvements across all tasks following training (all ps < .001). The CI participants demonstrated reduced training gains compared to the NC participants (all ps < .001). Training gains did not vary as a function of training conditions. Discussion and Implications The findings suggest that CFSAT is an efficacious program for assessing and training everyday task performance. CFSAT can ultimately be used as an intervention strategy to enhance functional independence for aging adults with and without cognitive impairments.

Cognitive and metacognitive, motivational, and resource considerations for learning new skills across the lifespan

“…As a result, luxurious long hours once spent learning about novel skills gradually become dedicated to honing and utilizing those existing skills (Wu et al, 2017). One of the main reasons for pursuing this research area of lifespan novel skill learning is that as environmental demands change (e.g., increased need for technology use, Charness & Boot, 2009), novel skill learning is becoming increasingly essential for many middle-age and older adults (Czaja et al, 2020;Nguyen et al, 2020). A better understanding of how novel skill learning can be facilitated in adulthood is essential for nurturing optimal adult development.…”

Relationship Between Life-Space Mobility and Health Characteristics in Older Adults Using Global Positioning System Watches

“…While this finding suggests the need for easier instructions about GPS watch use to promote protocol adherence and the importance of considering the use context (e.g., cognitive function, user preference, etc. ), this study provides empirical evidence that performance of technology-based tasks can be an indicator of assessing older adults’ cognitive abilities (Czaja et al, 2020).…”

Digital Marker for Early Screening of Mild Cognitive Impairment Through Hand and Eye Movement Analysis in Virtual Reality Using Machine Learning: First Validation Study

“…Instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) tasks, which represent cognitively complex activities performed in everyday life, are suitable tasks to be developed as digital markers [ 26 , 27 ]. Because successfully carrying out IADL tasks requires a high level of cognitive function, patients with MCI showed significantly poorer IADL performance compared with healthy controls [ 28 , 29 ]. Among various IADL tasks, ordering menu items from a kiosk was found to be the assignment where patients with MCI showed the lowest performance [ 28 , 30 ].…”