Playfulness in Online and Face-to-face Interactions, From Adulthood to Aging: Physiological, Cognitive, and Emotional Mechanisms and Outcomes

Play is a crucial activity that supports human beings and animals throughout the life course, and enables individuals to acquire and practice complex physical, cognitive and social and contemplative skills. The term 'play' has many meanings; over the years, psychologists and biologists have tried to define criteria for the identification of playful behavior. Generally speaking, playful behavior is spontaneous and rewarding to the individual, as players play for the sake of playing; it has no immediate utility beside the play itself (as opposed to, for example, rule-governed competitive sports activities). The play occurs outside ordinary reality, yet maintains a relation with it. Playful behavior consists of actions or thoughts, expressed in novel combinations (such as when a parent takes the role of a child); it is grounded in positive social exchanges, in which the individual is more inclined to behave or think in a spontaneous and flexible way.

In the current study, the investigators will focus on a particular form of social playfulness, termed improvised dramatic interactions (IDI), which plays a central role in creative arts therapies and contemplative arts. IDI can occur on different levels, ranging from non-verbal expressions such as emotions, gestures, and postures, to verbal communication, which involve real-time dialogue and narrative progression. It is the act of spontaneous co-creation which requires people to cooperate on a moment-to-moment basis in order to keep playing. The participants continuously exchange, co-adapt, and co-create. Accordingly, IDI is believed to present an ongoing challenge (and provide training) for different aspects of executive functions and to powerfully trigger a multitude of attentional, perceptual, and social processes. Studies of IDI conducted among younger populations point to its tangible beneficial effects on certain aspects of mental health, such as a reduction of depressive and anxiety symptoms and an enhancement of mood and psychological well-being.

Given the potential of IDI to improve mental health, it is surprising that research on this topic is still sparse; frequently, it lacks well matched control activities and underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. In addition, most studies on improvised playful interactions have focused on children, adolescents and young adults. In this study the investigators aim to examine the beneficial effects of a short playful interaction on the cognitive, social, and mood of older people. the investigators will examine changes in indices of mood, mental health, social functioning, cognition compared to an active control intervention. The study also aims to compare between online playful interactions to face to face.

In addition, in the past two decades there has been a shift toward the development of "tailor-made" interventions that fit individual needs and abilities. This trend is especially important in aging, given increased variability in personality and cognitive and sensory characteristics. In the current study, the investigators aim to investigate the mediating role of personality traits and cognitive functions in connection to the beneficial effect of playful interactions in aging.

The investigators hypnotized that playful interactions will induce greater effects on emotional and social indices, as well as on executive functioning, compared to more familiar social interactions. The investigators hypothesize that these effects will be found in older populations. The effects of short-term playful interaction tasks as compared to the matched social control condition will be preserved in the online format. Individuals' characteristics and personality traits will influence the effects of the interaction on the dependent variables.