UNDERSTANDING COGNITIVE CHANGE
Dr. Lynn Hasher
Senior Scientist
DRIVEN BY DISTRACTION
There is plenty of research that shows older adults are more easily
distracted than young adults. Can this be used to their benefit?
In a recent study, Dr. Lynn Hasher and her team found that older
participants, when asked to perform a task, were more bothered
by extraneous information present in an environment. They also
found that those who were easily distracted were also better able to
use the extraneous information to solve problems later in the study.
This research and others suggest it's possible to employ carefully
chosen distractions to boost the cognitive functioning of older adults.
Dr. Hasher continues to refine her research with the hope that it
will eventually lead to interventions that can help people maintain
memory performance.
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