Recruiting

Cognitive Improvement

Sponsor:

University of Kansas

Code:

NCT03501706

Conditions

Delay Discounting

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 40 - 60

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

Sequenced Recall of Digits--Auditory

Sequenced Reverse Recall of Digits--Auditory

Sequenced Recall of Words--Visual

Verbal Memory--Visual

Study Details

Brief summary:

Many health-relevant decisions involve intertemporal (now vs. later) tradeoffs. Extensive literature indicates that many negative health and financial consequences suffered in mid-life are linked to adversity and disadvantage during early developmental periods of life. Individuals who continue to engage in these types of unhealthy behaviors despite awareness of the health consequences are exhibiting an inability to delay gratification.

Delay discounting (DD) is quantified in human studies by determining the rate at which an individual discounts a delayed reward, while executive function (EF) is defined as the set of cognitive processes that are responsible for helping individuals manage life tasks and achieve goals. This research will attempt to reduce DD via EF training in a population of mid-life individuals with risk factors established during early-life disadvantage.

Conditions

Delay Discounting

Study ID

NCT03501706

Start date

Nov 1, 2014

Status verified date

May, 2024

Completion date

Jul 31, 2024

Anticipated

Primary completion date

May 31, 2024

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 40 - 60

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Community members in neighborhoods of Baltimore, Maryland
  • Participants willing to participate in the 5-7 week program

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Participants with a severe substance use disorder according to the DSM-5 with any substance other than tobacco
  • Participants with any significant medical or psychiatric condition which the training is not designed for (e.g., traumatic brain injury, dementia, significant learning disability, or schizophrenia)
  • Participants with severe depression

Study Design

Enrollment

680 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Factorial

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Active Training (AT) Group

Participants will complete four computerized training programs to improve executive function (EF), including Sequenced Recall of Digits - Auditory, Sequenced Reverse Recall of Digits - Auditory, Sequenced Recall of Words - Visual, Verbal Memory - Visual.

no intervention: Control Training (CT) Group

Participants will complete the four computerized programs relating to executive function (EF), but will be provided with the answer (i.e., without memory requirements). That is, participants in the control condition will not be asked to engage their cognitive functions.

Interventions

Sequenced Recall of Digits--Auditory

Auditory digit sequence AT memory component.

Sequenced Reverse Recall of Digits--Auditory

Reversed auditory digit sequence AT memory component.

Sequenced Recall of Words--Visual

Visual word sequence AT memory component

Verbal Memory--Visual

word recognition AT memory component

Primary outcome measure

  • Change in Delay Discounting (DD) [ Time Frame: Baseline; Week 6-8; Month 3; Month 6 ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Richard Yi, PhD

785-864-6476ryi1@ku.edu

Anahi Collado, PhD

anco7407@colorado.edu

Locations

University of Kansas-Lawrence

Recruiting

Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 21201

Contacts

Maggie Engstrom

maggie.engstrom@ku.edu

Principal Investigator:

Richard Yi, PhD

More Information

Sponsor

University of Kansas

Last update posted

May 10, 2024

Last verified

May, 2024

Keywords

  • intertemporal tradeoffs
  • delayed gratification
  • executive functioning
  • delay discounting
  • working memory

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by University of Kansas on 2024-05-10.