{"id":713,"date":"2013-12-02T23:11:05","date_gmt":"2013-12-03T04:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/?p=713"},"modified":"2017-09-06T12:18:53","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T16:18:53","slug":"pick-up-a-new-hobby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/2013\/12\/02\/pick-up-a-new-hobby\/","title":{"rendered":"Pick Up a New Hobby and See Your Memory Improve!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Quilting\"<\/a>(Treadwell, 2012)<\/p>\n

As the older population grows in numbers, there is an increasing social urgency to find ways to maintain or even improve one’s cognitive health. \u00a0As we age, declines in memory, attentional control, speed of processing, and problem-solving abilities are expected and are considered to be typical of normal, healthy aging. Past studies have shown the links between participation in cognitive, leisure and social activities with improved cognitive ability, as well as a decreased risk of Alzheimer’s Disease. \u00a0However little evidence has been found on whether sustained lifestyle engagement can help to maintain or improve cognitive function. \u00a0This study by Park et al. (2013) sought to examine the impact of sustained engagement on the cognitive abilities of older adults.\u00a0This study is called the “Synapse Project” because unlike normal cognitive training, in which participants come in for an experiment that typically last a few hours or a few days, the participants in this study agree to make a lifestyle change in that they are learning new, demanding real-world skills in a social environment. This allows us to see the true effects of the acquisition of the new skill over time on the participants’ cognitive abilities.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In this specific experiment (Park et al., 2013) participants spent approximately 15 hours per week over a 3-month span learning or participating in their designated task. You may be given the opportunity to participate in a digital photography class in which you learn all about the camera as well as computer software used for editing different photos you have taken. There was also a class, offered for those less tech-savvy people out there, that individuals participated in a quilting class where they started with basic stitches and worked their way up to more complex patterns. Other people were allowed to a combination of the two so that they attended both quilting and digital photography classes with other individuals. The individuals in these three classes learned new, challenging skills that were cognitively demanding, in that they stimulated many different areas of the brain. All of these classes were in group form and had an instructor allowing for social interaction with the other people in the classes. There was another group that went on field trips, social outings, cooked, and watched movies, but didn’t necessarily learn anything new and demanding. Another group was involved in tasks like crossword puzzles, completing word-meaning, and listened to classical music.<\/p>\n

This study by Park (2013) found that those individuals who were actively engaged in new, demanding and challenging tasks, specifically those individuals in the photo condition, experienced great improvements in episodic memory. Episodic memory is \u00a0the memory for specific events, situations or experiences. For example, the person who attended the photography class over this 3-month span, may be better able to to recall their first kiss, their first dance at their wedding, or their daughter’s graduation speech. Having a better episodic memory, because it contains memories of your personal life history, is therefore very important to self-identity. If a person is able to improve their episodic memory, it will translate into an improved confidence and self-efficacy of the individual, which is sure to translate in improvements in other aspects of the individual’s life and overall quality of life.<\/p>\n

To access the original article, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Park, D. C., Lodi-Smith, J., Drew, L., Haber, S., Hebrank, A., Bischof, G. N., & Aamodt, W. (2013). The impact of sustained engagement on cognitive function in older adults: The synapse project. Psychological Science, doi:10.1177\/0956797613499592<\/p>\n

Treadwell, Jaine.\u00a0Age-Old Tradition<\/i>. Digital image.\u00a0The Troy Messenger<\/i>. N.p., 26 Mar. 2012. Web. <http:\/\/www.troymessenger.com\/2012\/03\/26\/age-old-tradition\/>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Treadwell, 2012) As the older population grows in numbers, there is an increasing social urgency to find ways to maintain or even improve one’s cognitive health. \u00a0As we age, declines in memory, attentional control, speed of processing, and problem-solving abilities are expected and are considered to be typical of normal, healthy aging. Past studies have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3802,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40864,80215],"tags":[129785],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3802"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3793,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions\/3793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}