Evaluation of the effectiveness of the cognitive empowerment program based on virtual reality technology on working memory for the elderly with mild cognitive impairment

Authors: Mahdieh Sasaninezhad, Alireza Moradi, Mostafa Almasi Dooghaee, Hamed Azarnoush

Publication date: 2022

 

Journal: ADVANCES IN COGNITIVE SCIENCE

 

Description:

Methods: The present study belongs to quasi-experimental designs in terms of the data collection method. In this study, the experimental design of pre-test-post-test and follow-up with the control group has been used. In this study, 30 patients with mild cognitive impairment were randomly divided into control (n= 15) and experimental (n= 15) groups. Subscales of digit span and symbol span were performed in three stages: pre-test, post-test, and follow-up after one month to examine working memory. The intervention included a virtual reality-based program designed for ten sessions, three sessions per week.

Results: The repeated measures analysis of variance showed a significant difference between the experimental and control bands in digit and symbol span. There was a significant difference between the mean digit span in the pre-test stage with the two post-test and follow-up stages, as well as the two post-test and follow-up stages. The results also indicated that a significant effect was reported on the average of the symbol span over time. The mean symbol span in the pre-test stage was significantly different from the two post-test and follow-up stages. However, no significant difference was observed between the two stages of post-test and follow-up. Conclusion: The results revealed that cognitive empowerment based on virtual reality technology could improve working memory, and the durability of the effect was observed in the follow-up one month later in the digit span.

 

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