| Description |
The older adult population is growing, as is their interest in accessing healthcare information through online multimedia sources. To meet this need, instructional designers need to be able to develop multimedia materials to educate older adults while being mindful of the cognitive limitations of aging such as a decline in fluid intelligence (Gf). Cognitive prompts have been shown to be one such way to address limitations by activating prior knowledge and crystallized intelligence (Gc), of which older adults have an abundant store. The present study looked at the use of prompts embedded in educational videos about caregiving topics (stages of dementia & incontinence) to improve deeper/transfer learning among older adults. It was hypothesized that adults who viewed videos with cognitive prompts would perform better on tests of transfer and recognition than would those who viewed videos without prompts. It was further hypothesized that prior knowledge and Gc would be significantly related to transfer performance and that Gc would mediate the relationship between cognitive prompts and performance on tests of transfer and recognition. Sixty (N=60) older adult participants (ages 54-92) were administered the WAIS-IV Vocabulary and Matrix Reasoning subtests to determine their current levels of Gc and Gf, respectively. They then completed a pre-knowledge test and viewed two videos, one with and one without cognitive prompts, prior to completing tests of recognition and transfer for each video. ANCOVA, correlation, and regression analyses showed that cognitive prompts significantly iv improved older adult performance on tests of recognition and transfer. Prior knowledge was found to be a significant covariate for transfer and Gc was a significant covariate for recognition and transfer performance. Path analyses showed Gc to be a significant mediator between dementia prompts and recognition and between incontinence prompts and transfer. Cognitive prompts in multimedia educational materials provide a promising tool for improving the education of older adults. More research is needed to determine ways to maximize effectiveness of prompts as well as to improve generalization of the results to a more diverse population. |
