Effects of Active Recall Practices on Cognitive Performance in Older Adults with Dementia

Overview

Dementia is a growing issue among the older population, though certain activities that engage cognitive interaction help slow its development; meanwhile, active recall practices, which serve as effective study techniques for students, encourage cognitive engagement. Due to limited evaluation of the relationship between these two in previous literature, this study aims to determine if short-term active recall practices (i.e., flashcards) enhance cognitive performance in older adults with memory impairments. This analysis hypothesized that these techniques would improve results because of their connection with improving memory and cognition. Accordingly, an experiment with fourteen participants split in two groups (n = 7 in experimental, n = 7 in control) was conducted, with both taking two trials of a custom dementia test. The experimental group reviewed flashcards in between the trials, while control did not, allowing for evaluation of active recall practices on the tests’ scores. Two-tailed paired t-tests for scores from each group’s trials were used: t(6) = 0.32, p = 0.76 and t(6) = -0.54, p = 0.61, respectively. Since p > 0.05, this experiment failed to reject the null hypothesis and did not support the alternative hypothesis. Additionally, an independent t-test that examined the differences between the two groups’ results also indicated a lack of significant differences. Overall, this finding provides preliminary evidence and research implications for further investigation of this correlation, such as examining the effects of different types of cognitive activities, other lifestyle factors, and long-term interventions.

Competition history

• CSEF 2026 Behavioral & Social Sciences (Senior Division) · Entry S-03-09

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