Acceso usuarios
Caroline Auffray, Jacques Juhel
This study concerns the evaluation of the efficiency of a cognitive training program on 80-year-old subjects'performance measures on 8 cognitive tasks (attentional control, memory, reasoning) . The experimental group (N = 64) attended 6 multimodal cognitive training sessions (attention, memory, reasoning) whereas the control group (N = 18) took part in 6 discussion sessions. Elderly people's cognitive performances before and just after the program, as well as 6 and 9 months later were compared. The principal results show a significant gain in cognitive performance on memory tasks even several months after the training program. The individual differences analysis shows that our training program was primarily effective for subjects characterised by high levels of performance on preliminary cognitive tests. Two conclusions are advanced ; cognitive plasticity may not be possible for very aged people with low cognitive levels and limited educational background. Cognitive programs should be adapted with regard to less abstract exercises based on participants' cognitive levels.
