Supporting Cognitive Health in Aging: Investigating the Influence of Music and Activity Engagement
Abstract
Aging is an intricate process that is commonly accompanied by physical and cognitive changes over time. My dissertation covers three studies that aim to contribute to the literature in supporting cognitive health with aging. In Study 1, I broadly examine various types of activity engagement such as cognitive, social, and physical activities, and their role in supporting cognitive performance in older adults. Using data from an existing dataset, I examined whether activity category, frequency of engagement, predicted cognitive performance. Although these factors were not found to be predicative of cognitive performance, age and years of education were significant predictors. These results did not support the predominant consensus that at least some types of activity engagement contribute to cognitive performance. The findings from this study raised questions regarding what the overall effect of activity engagement and cognitive performance is amongst healthy older adults. In Study 2, I dove deeper into this relationship through conducting a meta-analysis to examine the overall effect of this relation amongst older adults using data from correlational studies. Using PRISMA guidelines, we identified 35 studies resulting in 484 effect sizes. A small significant relation was found between activity engagement and cognitive performance and moderators and exploratory analyses are discussed in further detail. Lastly, I examine the activity of music engagement, a prominent lifestyle activity shown to be beneficial to cognitive performance and hearing abilities later in life. In Study 3, I discuss the development of a music-based intervention that aims to improve cognition and speech-in-competition abilities for the older adult population and the results of early prototype testing in preparation for the intervention implementation. Overall, I critically examine the idea that engaging in various types of activities across the lifespan contributes to preserved cognitive abilities in later life, mitigating severe age-related cognitive decline.