title: How to enhance route learning and visuo-spatial working memory in aging: a training for residential care home residents.
abstract: This study aimed to assess the efficacy of a route-learning training in a group of older adults living in a residential care home. We verified the presence of training-specific effects in tasks similar to those trained - route-learning tasks - as well as transfer effects on related cognitive processes - visuo-spatial short-term memory (VSSTM; Corsi Blocks Test (CBT), forward version), visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM; CBT, backward version; Pathway Span Tasks; Jigsaw Puzzle Test) - and in self-report measures. The maintenance of training benefits was examined after 3 months.
  
  
  
  Thirty 70-90-year-old residential care home residents were randomly assigned to the route-learning training group or to an active control group (involved in non-visuo-spatial activities).
  
  
  
  The trained group performed better than the control group in the route-learning tasks, retaining this benefit 3 months later. Immediate transfer effects were also seen in visuo-spatial span tasks (i.e., CBT forward and backward version and Pathway Span Task); these benefits had been substantially maintained at the 3-month follow-up.
  
  
  
  These findings suggest that a training on route learning is a promising approach to sustain older adults' environmental learning and some related abilities (e.g., VSSTM and VSWM), even in residential care home residents.
authors.affiliation: a IRCCS Fondazione Ospedale San Camillo , Venezia , Italy.
authors.forename: Micaela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mitolo
authors.affiliation: b Department of General Psychology , University of Padova , Padova , Italy.
authors.forename: Erika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Borella
authors.affiliation: b Department of General Psychology , University of Padova , Padova , Italy.
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Meneghetti
authors.affiliation: b Department of General Psychology , University of Padova , Padova , Italy.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Carbone
authors.affiliation: b Department of General Psychology , University of Padova , Padova , Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pazzaglia
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D009735:Nursing Homes; D016730:Program Development / Q000379:methods*; D011897:Random Allocation; D057566:Self Report; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
keywords: Route-learning training; navigation abilities; older adults; residential care homes; visuo-spatial memory