The present study investigates the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effects of a novel visual arts-based intervention in an older adult population. In a randomized controlled design, two arts-based interventions will be evaluated with a group of 40 participants.
A two-arm randomized controlled study will be conducted to obtain within-group ratings of feasibility and acceptability, as well as between-group differences in drawing skills after training. In the drawing intervention, participants will learn and train drawing skills through exercises that target attention, perception, and visuospatial reasoning. In the active control condition, participants will navigate virtual art galleries. Both interventions will be completed remotely and at home. Participants will complete in-lab assessment sessions before and after the training. Each intervention consists of 6 weeks of training for up to 2 hours a week, including up to 1 hour of a self-guided lesson and prompted daily drawing practice adding up to 1 hour in the drawing intervention and 2 1-hour sessions of virtual gallery exploring per week in the arts appreciation intervention. The pre-test is administered within one week of the start of training and the post-test is administered within one week of training completion.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
40
* Learning about and practicing drawing from observation with training adding up to 2 hours a week * Documenting progress and reflection writing
* 6 weeks of online gallery browsing based on different topics * 2 hours of weekly activities consist of reading and navigating technology * Reflection writing
Northeastern University
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Acceptability - Age appropriateness
Perceived age-appropriateness of the course content, likert scale 0-5
Time frame: Throughout training (weeks 1-6 of training)
Acceptability - engagement
Level of engagement with the course materials, likert scale 0-5
Time frame: Throughout training (weeks 1-6 of training)
Acceptability - Welcoming
How welcoming participants perceived the activities, likert scale from 0-5
Time frame: Throughout training (weeks 1-6 of training)
Feasibility - completion rate
% of participants who completed both testing sessions
Time frame: At the post-test 6-8 weeks later
Feasibility - adherence
Number of lessons that participants completed, from 0-6
Time frame: At the post-test 6-8 weeks later or when a participant decided to drop out
Feasibility - Frequency
Total number of times participants logged their progress
Time frame: Throughout training (weeks 1-6 of training)
Feasibility - Attrition
List of common reasons for drop-out and the number of times a reason was mentioned
Time frame: At the post-test 6-8 weeks later or when a participant decided to drop out
Change in Drawing skills
Participants will have 7 minutes to draw a still life from observation. Accuracy is scored using a rubric assessing accuracy on global and local features.
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Time frame: Pre-test (baseline) and post-test 6-8 weeks later
Change in Perception - contour integration
Participants tap on circles of aligned Gabors embedded in a scene of randomly oriented Gabors. A circle will be present for 3 seconds and switch to the next trial if it is not seen. Orientation jitter threshold will be measured.
Time frame: Pre-test (baseline) and post-test 6-8 weeks later
Change in Perception - visual disembedding
articipants search for a target shape in 3 complex gestalts of overlapping shapes. Participants select the complex shape containing the target. Number of correctly answered trials accuracy are measured.
Time frame: Pre-test (baseline) and post-test 6-8 weeks later
Change in Visuospatial Reasoning - construction and memory
3D Mental Rotation (3 min) will test mental transformation. Participants will be briefly shown two figures and asked to determine whether the figures are the same or mirror reversed. Number of correctly answered trials accuracy are measured.
Time frame: Pre-test (baseline) and post-test 6-8 weeks later
Change in Visuospatial Reasoning - mental transformation
3D Mental Rotation (3 min) will test mental transformation. Participants will be briefly shown two figures and asked to determine whether the figures are the same or mirror reversed. Number of correctly answered trials accuracy are measured.
Time frame: Pre-test (baseline) and post-test 6-8 weeks later
Change in Attention
A cancellation task will measure selective attention. Participants correctly mark as many d's with two marks as they can in a set amount of time. A score of concentration performance is extracted by subtracting the sum of false alarms from the sum of hits.
Time frame: Pre-test (baseline) and post-test 6-8 weeks later
Change in Mindfulness
Participants complete a version Solloway Mindfulness Survey adapted to drawing. The questionnaire includes 30 questions on a 7-point scale on the degree to which engaging in drawing is related to different aspects of mindful attention.
Time frame: Pre-test (baseline) and post-test 6-8 weeks later
Change in Mental Wellbeing
Mental Wellbeing is assessed by the WEMWBS, which includes 14 questions on a 5 point scale about positive mental wellbeing.
Time frame: Pre-test (baseline) and post-test 6-8 weeks later