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Completed

NCT Number: NCT04088136

Everyday Memory Intervention

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

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Key information

Conditions

Aging

Age range

70 year–85 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Adult Cognition Lab

Atlanta, Georgia, 30332, United States

About this study

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.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

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.

Treatment and study plan

Everyday Metacognitive Memory Intervention

Behavioral

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.

Memory Strategy Control Intervention

Behavioral

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).

Primary outcomes

  1. Everyday Memory Failures

    Time frame: minimum 8 day period after training on app prior to posttest

    Across the data collection period, participants audio recorded descriptions of their memory failures on a smartphone app. The audio recordings were transcribed and then cleaned and qualitatively coded so that the number of memory failures each participant reported during the data collection period could be counted. The data was qualitatively coded to ensure an accurate count of the number of memory failures per participant without counting duplicate events or accidental reports. Average daily number of reported memory failures from EMA & daily diaries is reported.

  2. Prospective Memory Lab Contacts

    Time frame: Two weeks prior to posttest

    Number of successfully completed lab contacts (maximum of 4)

  3. Prospective Memory Lab Contact Efficiency

    Time frame: Two weeks prior to posttest

    median absolute time deviation (in minutes) from scheduled lab contact for completed contacts

  4. Everyday Cognition Simulation Task: ATM Task (Number of Errors)

    Time frame: posttest only

    Computerized task to simulate use of an ATM machine. Measure: number of errors

  5. Czaja Everyday Cognition Simulation Task: Prescription Refill Task (Number of Errors)

    Time frame: posttest only

    Computerized task to simulate use of an automated telephone program to refill prescriptions. Measure: Number of errors

  6. Free Recall Test

    Time frame: pretest and posttest (approximately 1 month lag)

    Computerized task to present 30 concrete nouns, 6 from 5 taxonomic categories (Hultsch, Hertzog, Dixon, & Small, 1998) Measure is proportion of 30 words recalled

  7. Associative Recall Test

    Time frame: pretest and posttest (approximately 1 month lag)

    Computerized task to present 40 concrete-concrete associatively unrelated noun pairs (Hertzog, Sinclair, & Dunlosky, 2010) Outcome is proportion of 40 words correctly recalled.

  8. Story Recall

    Time frame: posttest only

    gist recall of narrative story (total number of propositions (ideas) from story recalled)

  9. Everyday Cognition Simulation Task: ATM Task (Time in Seconds)

    Time frame: posttest only

    Computerized task to simulate use of an ATM machine. Measure: time to complete task (in seconds)

  10. Czaja Everyday Cognition Simulation Task: Prescription Refill Task (Time in Seconds)

    Time frame: posttest only

    Computerized task to simulate use of an automated telephone program to refill prescriptions. Measure: time to complete task (in seconds)

Secondary outcomes

  1. MFQ Memory Complaint (Frequency of Forgetting Scale)

    Time frame: pretest and posttest (approximately 1 month lag)

    Summative Likert scale measuring frequency of reported memory problems for specific types of problems Measure is average item Likert rating on a 1-7 scale. Higher score indicates fewer memory problems

  2. PBMI Specific Memory Self-Efficacy

    Time frame: pretest and posttest (approximately 1 month lag)

    The Personal Beliefs about Memory Instruments (PBMI) Specific Memory Self-Efficacy measurement is a summative visual analog rating scale measuring self-rated memory aggregated over multiple specific types of memory. Outcomes scaled in average proportion of distance from left (0) to maximum of 1.00 (higher scores indicate greater memory self-efficacy).

  3. PBMI Memory Control

    Time frame: pretest and posttest (approximately 1 month lag)

    Summative visual analog rating scale measuring self-rated control over everyday. Outcome is scaled as average proportion of maximum endorsement (ranging from 0 to 1.0, with higher scores indicate greater perceived control)

  4. MCQ Internal Scale

    Time frame: pretest and posttest (approximately 1 month lag)

    Summative Likert scale obtaining self-rated frequency of use of internal mnemonic strategies in everyday life. Average Likert rating on 1-5 scale (higher scores indicate greater use of strategies)

  5. MCQ External

    Time frame: pretest and posttest (approximately 1 month lag)

    Summative Likert scale obtaining self-rated frequency of use of external memory aids. Outcome is scaled as average Likert rating on 1-5 scale. Higher score indicates greater use of external aids.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Georgia Institute of Technology

Other

Collaborators

  • National Institute on Aging (NIA)

Registry information

Official study title

Enhancing Older Adults' Everyday Memory Function

Acronym: EMMI

Important dates

Study start
2021
Primary completion
2021
Study completion
2021
First posted
Sep 12, 2019
Registry last updated
May 1, 2024

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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