EMMI: Everyday Memory Intervention

Sponsor

Georgia Institute of Technology (Other)

Overall Status

Completed

CT.gov ID

NCT04088136

Collaborator

(none)

Enrollment

Location

Arms

8.9

Actual Duration (Months)

Patients Per Site Per Month

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

Evaluates an intervention designed to improve everyday memory function, contrasting people receiving the intervention with a group that receives traditional memory strategy training.

Condition or Disease	Intervention/Treatment	Phase
Aging	Behavioral: Everyday Metacognitive Memory Intervention Behavioral: Memory Strategy Control Intervention	N/A

Detailed Description

This project seeks to develop and validate a novel approach to training everyday memory functioning in older adults. The approach (1) trains people to use simple but effective memory skills that have broad applicability in everyday life and (2) shapes a set of skills and habits of mind that will increase the likelihood of effective use of skills and memory aids. It is based on a metacognitive perspective on self-regulation in cognitively demanding situations and informed by recent theories about how suboptimal habit patterns can be altered. The approach has not yet been used in an everyday memory intervention in high-functioning, community-dwelling older adults. The proposed research validates ecological momentary assessment methods to get actual behavioral measures of forgetting in everyday life. It then uses these procedures in a randomized experiment that contrasts the everyday memory intervention group with a traditional memory-strategy training group. The hypothesis is that the everyday memory training intervention will reduce everyday memory errors and memory complaints, whereas the memory strategy training will alter strategy use and memory performance, with little cross-over effect. The hypothesized pattern will establish the explicit benefits of our everyday memory intervention procedures and demonstrate the limitation of standard memory training for that purpose.

Study Design

Study Type:

Interventional

Actual Enrollment :

62 participants

Allocation:

Randomized

Intervention Model:

Parallel Assignment

Masking:

None (Open Label)

Primary Purpose:

Basic Science

Official Title:

Enhancing Older Adults' Everyday Memory Function

Actual Study Start Date :

Mar 15, 2021

Actual Primary Completion Date :

Dec 10, 2021

Actual Study Completion Date :

Dec 10, 2021

Arms and Interventions

Arm	Intervention/Treatment
Experimental: Everyday Metacognitive Memory Training in techniques for managing memory demands in everyday life	Behavioral: Everyday Metacognitive Memory Intervention Provides training in use of techniques and procedures to enhance proactive self-regulatory control over everyday memory demands, including strategies for learning information, planning for meeting everyday goals, and monitoring of efficacy of goal pursuit.
Active Comparator: Memory Strategy Control Trains the use of memory strategies for learning new associations and concepts	Behavioral: Memory Strategy Control Intervention Trains use of standard mnemonic techniques such as imagery and sentence generation for learning new associations and organizational and distinctiveness-based strategies for learning sets of items (e.g., word lists).

Arm

Intervention/Treatment

Experimental: Everyday Metacognitive Memory

Training in techniques for managing memory demands in everyday life

Behavioral: Everyday Metacognitive Memory Intervention

Provides training in use of techniques and procedures to enhance proactive self-regulatory control over everyday memory demands, including strategies for learning information, planning for meeting everyday goals, and monitoring of efficacy of goal pursuit.

Active Comparator: Memory Strategy Control

Trains the use of memory strategies for learning new associations and concepts

Behavioral: Memory Strategy Control Intervention

Trains use of standard mnemonic techniques such as imagery and sentence generation for learning new associations and organizational and distinctiveness-based strategies for learning sets of items (e.g., word lists).

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

Everyday Memory Failures [Two years]
Frequency count of reported memory failures from EMA & daily diaries; requires qualitative coding to identify eligible events and avoid duplicate reports
Everyday Memory Successes [Two years]
Frequency count of reported everyday memory successes from EMA & daily diaries; requires qualitative coding to identify eligible events and avoid duplicate reports
Frequency count of reported memory failures from EMA & daily diaries [Two years]
Frequency count of reported memory failures from EMA & daily diaries
Everyday Cognition Simulation Task: ATM Task [Two years]
Computerized task to simulate use of an ATM machine. Measure: number of correct responses and total time on task
Czaja Everyday Cognition Simulation Task: Prescription Refill Task [Two years]
Computerized task to simulate use of an automated telephone program to refill prescriptions. Measure: Number of correct responses and total time on task
Free recall test [Two years]
Computerized task to present 30 concrete nouns, 6 from 5 taxonomic categories (Hultsch, Hertzog, Dixon, & Small, 1998)
Associative recall test [Two years]
Computerized task to present 40 concrete-concrete associatively unrelated noun pairs (Hertzog, Sinclair, & Dunlosky, 2010)

Secondary Outcome Measures

MFQ memory complaint [Two years]
Summative Likert scale measuring frequency of reported memory problems for specific types of problems
PBMI Specific MSE [Two years]
Summative Likert scale measuring self-rated memory for specific types of memory
PBMI Memory Control [Two years]
Summative Likert scale measuring self-rated control over everyday
MCQ Internal [Two years]
Summative Likert scale obtaining self-rated frequency of use of internal mnemonic strategies
MCQ External [Two years]
Summative Likert scale obtaining self-rated frequency of use of external memory aids

Eligibility Criteria

Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study:

70 Years to 85 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study:

All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

Yes

Inclusion Criteria:

70 - 85 years of age
in fair to good health
free of major neurocognitive impairment
English speaking
endorsed Smartphone and computer users (or willing to learn)

Exclusion Criteria:

diagnosis of any major neurological problems (e.g. stroke, Parkinson's disease, dementia)
1.5 SD below age-normed mean (or lower) on the TICS
low computer and smart phone literacy
and poor self-rated health.