The Effect of Brain Gym on working memory in Male Elderly

Document Type : علمی- پژوهشی

Authors

Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz

Abstract

purpose: As the age increases, the elderly suffers from cognitive disorders such as memory decline as a natural process. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a period of brain gym exercises on the working memory of male older adults.
Methods: In present semi-experimental study with pre-post-test with control group design, 30 male elderly were availably selected and randomly divided into two equal groups of 15 experimental (mean age:76.85±4.41 yr) and control (mean age:77.8±3.24 yr). Participants of both groups performed the digit Span Response test to evaluate the working memory in pre-test and after 16 training sessions (only experimental group) in post-test. The experimental group performed eight weeks, twice in the week and each session within 30 minutes and the control group performed nothing this period. The data were analyzed using the Mix-MANOVA test and independent and dependent T-tests on the significance level of 0.05 using of IBM SPSS22.
Results: The results of Mix-ANOVA showed a significant tow-way interaction (P=0.0001) and independent and paired T-test revealed significant difference between the experimental and control groups in post-test (P=0.0001). Also the progress from pre to post-test was significant for experimental group (P=0.0001).
Conclusion: With regarding to present findings, it suggests to educators and practitioners in the sports to apply this new method of practice to improve work memory to perform tasks and activities.

Keywords

References

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Sports Psychology
Volume 11, Issue 2 - Serial Number 2
November 2020
Pages 77-92

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History

  • Receive Date: 22 May 2019
  • Revise Date: 10 February 2021
  • Accept Date: 31 December 2020

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