Using Technology to Promote Mental Acuity

Phase 2

Completed

• Conditions: Mental Acuity
• Interventions: Behavioral: Financial incentives; Behavioral: No incentives

• Registration Number: NCT01126021
• Lead Sponsor: University of Pennsylvania

Brief Summary

The study plans to test the effectiveness of behavioral economics based incentives to promote the daily use of computer programs designed to improve memory and mental acuity. Subjects will be recruited from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The primary objective is to determine the impact of structured financial incentives on the number of computer-based cognitive exercises completed during a 3 month intervention period.

Detailed Description

Not available

Basic Information
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Recruitment & Eligibility
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Study & Design
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Trial Locations

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2010-05
• Study First Submitted: 2010-05-17
• Study First Submitted QC: 2010-05-18
• Study First Posted: 2010-05-19
• Primary Completion: 2011-09
• Study Completion: 2012-03
• Status Verified: 2016-12
• Last Update Submitted: 2016-12-01
• Last Update Posted: 2016-12-02

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 600

Inclusion Criteria

• 55-80 years old

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Exclusion Criteria

• Unable to read or understand the informed consent form

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Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Atomistic	Financial incentives	Each individual is awarded for his or her individual participation
Altruistic	Financial incentives	Participants are paired and rewarded according to the other individual's participation.
Team-based	Financial incentives	Teams compete against each other and receive rewards according to relative participation.
Control	No incentives	Given access to mental exercises but receives no rewards for use.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Number of activities completed	6 weeks	The number of memory and cognition enhancement activities played per day using the study provided software will be measured.
Performance on activities completed	6 weeks	Performance is measured by a scoring algorithm designed to estimate levels of memory, attention, cognitive control and processing speed.

Trial Locations

Locations (2)

University of Pennsylvania; 🇺🇸 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Carnegie Mellon University; 🇺🇸 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States