INS NYC 2024 Program

Poster	Poster Session 04 Program Schedule 02/15/2024 12:00 pm - 01:15 pm Room: Shubert Complex (Posters 1-60) Poster Session 04: Neuroimaging \| Neurostimulation/Neuromodulation \| Teleneuropsychology/Technology Final Abstract #14 Using Ecological Momentary Assessment to Capture Older Adults’ Memory Strategy Use in Real-Time Anselma Bautista, Washington State University, Pullman, United States Brooke Beech, Washington State University, Pullman, United States Catherine Luna, Washington State University, Pullman, United States Maureen Schmitter-Edgecombe, Washington State University, Pullman, United States Category: Aging Keyword 1: ecological validity Keyword 2: everyday functioning Keyword 3: technology Objective: As older adults encounter age-related cognitive changes, they often naturally engage in compensatory strategy use. Compensatory strategies (CS) refer to tools and techniques individuals utilize to complete tasks. Effective utilization of CS in completing everyday tasks is known to promote older adults’ functional independence. Older adults’ CS use is most often characterized through questionnaires, limited by their retrospective self-report nature, and in-laboratory tasks, which are artificial and time-limited settings that may fail to capture usual behavior. This study aimed to examine how older adults use CS in real-time in their typical environments through ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Participants and Methods: To capture typical usage of CS in daily life, participants (n = 63; M_age= 69.37, SD_a_ge = 8.47) wore a smartwatch for two weeks. Participants were prompted four times a day to report their real-time experiences. Additionally, participants were given the opportunity to capture their experiences outside the prompts by manually pressing a "strategy" button that was always accessible on the watch home screen. Questions on the smartwatch inquired about the most helpful CS used in the past hour (e.g., electronic note, routine) and what type of activity it was used to support (e.g., taking medication, cooking). Results: A total of 2,317 CS responses were captured. Across the sample, over twice as many answers were received in response to prompts (1,625) as were manually entered (692). The most popular responses entered during prompts about the most helpful CS used included no strategy (21.12%), paper note (13.81%), electronic device (13.72%), part of routine (10.19%), electronic note (9.19%), and item location (8.37%). Responses that received fewer endorsements included doing a task immediately (6.26%), double checking (5.22%), reducing distractions (5.14%), mental repetition (4.35%), and asking for help (2.55%). Similar trends were observed in the manually entered data. Regarding the type of activity that the CS was used to support, participants most often endorsed appointment (20.64%) or other (40.20%). Less frequently endorsed activities consisted of shopping (9.31%), cooking (7.06%), medication (4.71%), travel (4.51%), and finances (3.28%). Conclusions: EMA sampling four times per day appears to be a reliable method for collecting everyday CS information from older adults; participants indicated using a CS in the last hour in response to approximately 75% of all answered prompts, and the pattern of findings was similar to the manually entered data. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to employ EMA to investigate and outline the utilization of CS in everyday environments. EMA offers the benefit of enabling the capture of participants' experiences in-the-moment, which may provide a more accurate and comprehensive depiction of their daily lives compared to laboratory settings. However, findings are limited by participants’ high endorsement of “other” type of activity supported. Future directions include expanding activity response options, examining how CS use might fluctuate across time of day, and exploring how CS use may vary with other internal and environmental factors that can be captured via EMA.

Poster

02/15/2024
12:00 pm - 01:15 pm
Room: Shubert Complex (Posters 1-60)

Poster Session 04: Neuroimaging | Neurostimulation/Neuromodulation | Teleneuropsychology/Technology

Final Abstract #14

Using Ecological Momentary Assessment to Capture Older Adults’ Memory Strategy Use in Real-Time

Anselma Bautista, Washington State University, Pullman, United States
Brooke Beech, Washington State University, Pullman, United States
Catherine Luna, Washington State University, Pullman, United States
Maureen Schmitter-Edgecombe, Washington State University, Pullman, United States

Category: Aging

Keyword 1: ecological validity
Keyword 2: everyday functioning
Keyword 3: technology

Objective:

As older adults encounter age-related cognitive changes, they often naturally engage in compensatory strategy use. Compensatory strategies (CS) refer to tools and techniques individuals utilize to complete tasks. Effective utilization of CS in completing everyday tasks is known to promote older adults’ functional independence. Older adults’ CS use is most often characterized through questionnaires, limited by their retrospective self-report nature, and in-laboratory tasks, which are artificial and time-limited settings that may fail to capture usual behavior. This study aimed to examine how older adults use CS in real-time in their typical environments through ecological momentary assessment (EMA).

Participants and Methods:

To capture typical usage of CS in daily life, participants (n = 63; M_age= 69.37, SD_a_ge = 8.47) wore a smartwatch for two weeks. Participants were prompted four times a day to report their real-time experiences. Additionally, participants were given the opportunity to capture their experiences outside the prompts by manually pressing a "strategy" button that was always accessible on the watch home screen. Questions on the smartwatch inquired about the most helpful CS used in the past hour (e.g., electronic note, routine) and what type of activity it was used to support (e.g., taking medication, cooking).

Results:

A total of 2,317 CS responses were captured. Across the sample, over twice as many answers were received in response to prompts (1,625) as were manually entered (692). The most popular responses entered during prompts about the most helpful CS used included no strategy (21.12%), paper note (13.81%), electronic device (13.72%), part of routine (10.19%), electronic note (9.19%), and item location (8.37%). Responses that received fewer endorsements included doing a task immediately (6.26%), double checking (5.22%), reducing distractions (5.14%), mental repetition (4.35%), and asking for help (2.55%). Similar trends were observed in the manually entered data. Regarding the type of activity that the CS was used to support, participants most often endorsed appointment (20.64%) or other (40.20%). Less frequently endorsed activities consisted of shopping (9.31%), cooking (7.06%), medication (4.71%), travel (4.51%), and finances (3.28%).

Conclusions:

EMA sampling four times per day appears to be a reliable method for collecting everyday CS information from older adults; participants indicated using a CS in the last hour in response to approximately 75% of all answered prompts, and the pattern of findings was similar to the manually entered data. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to employ EMA to investigate and outline the utilization of CS in everyday environments. EMA offers the benefit of enabling the capture of participants' experiences in-the-moment, which may provide a more accurate and comprehensive depiction of their daily lives compared to laboratory settings. However, findings are limited by participants’ high endorsement of “other” type of activity supported. Future directions include expanding activity response options, examining how CS use might fluctuate across time of day, and exploring how CS use may vary with other internal and environmental factors that can be captured via EMA.