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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 22, 2026

Working Memory Training for Older Participants: A Control Group Training Regimen and Initial Intellectual Functioning Assessment

Working Memory Training for Older Participants: A Control Group Training Regimen and Initial Intellectual Functioning Assessment

Published on: September 20, 2020

Increasing stimulus duration improves attention and memory performance in elderly with cognitive impairment.

Yizhar Lavner¹, Israel Rabinowitz²

¹Department of Computer Science, Tel-Hai College, Upper Galilee, Israel.

SAGE Open Medicine

|April 16, 2016

Summary

Increasing stimulus duration improved attention and short-term memory in individuals with cognitive impairment. This finding suggests a potential method to enhance cognitive test performance in older adults with mild cognitive impairment or dementia.

Keywords:

Alzheimer’s disease Geriatrics/gerontology attention dementia digit span finger tapping mental health/psychiatry stimulus duration working memory

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Last Updated: Mar 22, 2026

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Published on: January 24, 2020

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Psychology

Background:

Cognitive impairment, including mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia, affects attention and short-term memory.
Standard cognitive tests may not accurately reflect an individual's true cognitive capacity due to factors like stimulus presentation speed.

Purpose of the Study:

To determine if increasing stimulus duration can enhance performance on an attention and short-term memory test in cognitively impaired individuals.
To investigate the effect of prolonged stimulus duration on digit span test performance in patients with MCI or dementia.

Main Methods:

A forward digit span test was administered to 65 patients (28 intervention, 37 controls) with MCI or dementia.
The intervention group received a modified test with increased digit duration (800 ms) after initial failure.
The control group continued with the standard digit span test.

Main Results:

A significantly higher proportion of the intervention group (46.4%) improved their digit span performance compared to the control group (5.4%).
The observed improvement in the intervention group was statistically significant (p=0.00005).

Conclusions:

Increased stimulus duration can improve performance on attention and short-term memory tests in cognitively impaired elderly individuals.
This enhancement is potentially linked to adaptations in stimulus processing, possibly related to motor responses like finger tapping.
The findings suggest a novel approach to assessing cognitive function in aging populations.