The Effect of Art Therapy on Cognitive Performance Among Ethnically Diverse Older Adults

Abstract

The population of ethnically diverse older adults in the US is rapidly growing, and reports of cognitive impairments, such as those caused by Alzheimer"s disease, are becoming more prevalent. This investigation explored whether art therapy could provide cognitive benefits among an ethnically diverse (N = 133), particularly Latino/Hispanic, population of older adults who are often excluded from research on aging and cognition. Within the study, five art therapists, each in distinct cities throughout three US states, provided art therapy to individuals aged 55 years and older at facilities such as community centers, adult daycare, assisted living, and skilled nursing facilities. Data were collected from therapist notes and reports, attendance records, demographic questionnaires, pretests, and posttests. Both objective and subjective assessments were employed during the pre-and posttest sessions. Assessments were chosen based on their validity, reliability, and the availability of previous research demonstrating the efficacy of their use. Seventeen art therapy studies provided the basis for the methodology of this study. An objective assessment was used to evaluate changes in cognitive performance among participants. Two statistical analyses were applied to assessment data: a t-test and a univariate linear regression. In both analyses, the experimental group exhibited significantly improved cognitive performance. Results from the t-test analysis showed that the mean change in scores among experimental group members was significantly greater than the control group (t = 1.68; p = .048). The univariate analysis revealed that cognitive performance showed statistically significant improvement among the experimental group members as compared with the control group (t = 2.44; p = .017). The results indicated that art therapy as a treatment provided a medium effect size (d = .064). Cognitive functioning improved significantly among the experimental group as compared to the control group following 10 weeks of art therapy. Other findings suggested that subjective cognitive performance improved, though not significantly, and that treatment factors such as session duration and art-therapy-approach were significantly correlated with changes in cognitive performance.

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“…The result on cognitive measure indicated that 12 sessions of social art activities is not enough to improve cognitive functioning. This result is different from earlier research (see Pike, 2013).…”

“…Depressive symptoms in later life have had low priority in clinical research of psychotherapeutic treatment (Munk, 2007), yet they contribute to a deterioration of physical and functional health (Choi, Ransom & Wyllie, 2008), and are prevalent in nursing homes (Meeks, et.al, 2015). Depression in nursing home residents has been found to be related to decrease in cognitive functions and to result in an increased burden for both residents and staff attempting to provide care (Cody & Drysdale, 2013;Pike, 2013).…”

The Use of Sculptural Lifelines in Art Psychotherapy (L'utilisation des lignes de vie sculpturales en art-thérapie)

“…This literature documented the use of expressive forms of drawing and painting. Several authors also mentioned the use of collage (Alders Pike, 2013;Carroll & Ribas, 2008;Landgarten, 1981;Liebmann, 2004;Riley, 1994Riley, , 1999Woolhiser Stallings, 2010). Due to the techniques employed, all of the lifelines, and their variations, in the above-referenced examples would have been created in two dimensions.…”

“…They have been used with adults (Brown, 1970;Fausek, 1997;Fitzpatrick, 2002;Ford, 1990;Frings Keyes, 1983;Gladding, 1998Gladding, , 2012Hass-Cohen, 2008a;Hoshino & Cameron, 2008;Landgarten, 1981;Liebmann, 2004Liebmann, , 2012Martin, 1997Martin, , 2003MeijerDegen, 2006;Miller, 1993;Rappaport, 2009;Rhyne, 1973;Ricco, 2007;Robbins, 1994;Ross, 1997;Rubin, 2005aRubin, , 2010Silverstone, 1991;Thornton, 1990;Tracz & Gehart-Brooks, 1999;van der Velden & Koops, 2005). Also, older adults have benefited from their use (Alders Pike, 2013;Bergland, 1982;Martin, 2003;Ravid-Horesh, 2004;Woolhiser Stallings, 2010). This literature documented the use of expressive forms of drawing and painting.…”

Augmenting Cognitive Reserve of Dementia Patients with Brain Aerobics

“…For example, Antoniou et al [2] proposed using foreign language learning programs aimed at older populations for building cognitive reserve as language learning engages an extensive brain network that is known to overlap with the regions negatively affected by the aging process. Pike [10] suggested art therapy treatment to improve cognitive performance of elderly people.…”