The assessment of Time to Improve Your Memory (TtIYM): a brief memory training program for community dwelling older adults.

Participants attend two 3.5-hour memory training sessions, spaced a week apart.. The sessions involve learning more about memory and older adults in conjunction, practicing self-testing and spaced retrieval on word tasks, small tests of the information covered, and brainstorming activities of how the participants will apply what they have learned to everyday tasks. In the gap between the sessions participants are challenged to practice and tell someone (family or friend) what they have learned. There is no set criteria as it is just a small activity to encourage them to remember what they have learned After the second training session, participants are sent regular texts reminding participants to use the memory strategies throughout their day. They will receive these tests every day for the first week, every second day for the second week, every third day for the third week, and then back to everyday for the fourth week. The text which will be sent is the following : “Please reply back with the number of times you used a strategy (including self-testing and spaced-retrieval) or attempted to use throughout the day. Please guess if unsure” They participants will also be sent encouragers via texts to reinforce their use of memory strategies. The first will be sent 3 days into the four-week period, the second will be sent 13 days into the four week period, the third will be sent 21 days into the four week period, and the fourth will be sent on the final day of the four week period. Participants are given a participant manual containing information about memory and answer sheets for tasks they complete in the sessions. This participant manual has been designed specifically for this study.. Facilitators have a manual containing the same information about memory as the participant manual as well as instructions on how to run the sessions. They will have group training with the principle investigator. This training will be completed in two two-hour sessions, . Two PowerPoint presentations will be used (one per session). The information on the two PowerPoints line up with the information given to facilitators and participants. It also follows the activities of the sessions. Cards containing individual words and word-pairs are used in the training to help participants practice the memory strategies. Challenge cards are given to the participants to help participants remember what they learned from session one during the week gap between the two session periods. Participant information sheet given to participants before beginning pre-testing Participant consent form which must be signed before beginning pre-testing The intervention will be facilitated by individuals who are in their Honour's year of their Psychology degree or have completed a four-year psychology degree or are a psychology post-graduate student. The intervention requires facilitators who have at least some general knowledge of psychology and some flexibility to when they can work. The intervention will be completed face-to-face in small groups as well as through texts. It will be run at the University of Queensland and community organizations. There are currently no other strategies to monitor strategy use other then the texts sent back each day by participants regarding how many times they have used strategies during that day.