Forskningsprojekt Kan minnet tränas upp genom språkträning och de yrken vi väljer att arbeta med under livet? Tidigare forskningsresultat är begränsade och resultaten spretiga. Inom förestående studie ämnas relevanta frågeställningar för dessa forskningsfält belysas.
I forskarsamhället pågår idag en diskussion om det är möjligt att träna uppmärksamhet och minne. Forskning visar att bl a människor som talar två eller flera språk samt människor som arbetar/arbetat en längre tid inom yrken som kräver hög mental belastning presterar bättre på vissa minnesuppgifter och verkar även upprätta någon form av skydd mot demenssjukdomar.
Knut och Alice Wallenbergs stiftelse, 2015-2020: 5 000 000 kr
I det här projektet kommer dessa frågor att belysas genom att studera individers prestationer i uppmärksamhets och minnesuppgifter över tid, genom både en befintlig databas (Betula databasen) och genom en ny longitudinell datainsamling.
People are living longer which leads to the important question of improving the quality of life in older age and in particular of how to combat the effects of cognitive decline. Bilingualism and complexity of work (CW) are two activities that have been suggested as possible factors that may improve successful aging. Bilinguals and individuals that have/had a mentally demanding occupation not only perform better in certain memory and attention tasks, it would also appear that they are less likely to develop dementia. However, specific knowledge is lacking about what advantages these activities may provide and if they are stable over time. There are some indications that the degree of benefit is directly related to the amount of cogntive activity – the more you activily use cogntive systems like memory and attention during your lifetime, the more likely these systems will continue to work efficiently in old age. Based on one of the largest longitudinal memory databases with data from individuals over a 25 year period, this project will launch a new longitudinal study looking specifically at how bilingaulism and CW affect cogntive abilites over time. While it may not be suprising to find that the life-long training aquired in specific cogntive tasks used in these activities lead to sustained levels of functioning, it would be valuable to discover if then these advantages transfer to other complex tasks that can become difficult in old age such as driving or learning new skills/routines. Thus, this project will include new memory and attentional tasks as well as measurements of performance in naturalistic settings (i.e. simulated driving). This project will develop a new theoretical framework for understanding how intellectual work demands and bilingualism affect cognitive aging and investigate the consequences of any advantages for successful aging.
Key Words: Bilingualism, Aging, Work complexity,Memory, Dementia,Language, Dementia,Attention, Working Memory
