Promoting engagement with life in older adulthood. This project aims to examine engagement in meaningful activities among older adults. Increasing older adults' engagement could promote direct benefits for social integration, well-being and better quality of life. The project is expected to generate new knowledge on programs that effectively promote engagement, as well as evaluating a new tailored approach to promoting engagement that aligns with individuals' unique strengths, capabilities and ....Promoting engagement with life in older adulthood. This project aims to examine engagement in meaningful activities among older adults. Increasing older adults' engagement could promote direct benefits for social integration, well-being and better quality of life. The project is expected to generate new knowledge on programs that effectively promote engagement, as well as evaluating a new tailored approach to promoting engagement that aligns with individuals' unique strengths, capabilities and values. The findings aim to provide benefits for community organisations and aged care service providers adopting innovative approaches to promoting ageing well.
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Remembering to remember: Prospective memory function in everyday life. Prospective memory is a core cognitive skill that refers to memory for future intentions. The goal of this project is to establish when, why and how real-life prospective memory function breaks down at different stages of the adult lifespan and in different everyday contexts - and what strategies most effectively prevent this from occurring. In doing so, this project expects to deliver knowledge that is theoretically transfor ....Remembering to remember: Prospective memory function in everyday life. Prospective memory is a core cognitive skill that refers to memory for future intentions. The goal of this project is to establish when, why and how real-life prospective memory function breaks down at different stages of the adult lifespan and in different everyday contexts - and what strategies most effectively prevent this from occurring. In doing so, this project expects to deliver knowledge that is theoretically transformative, and that delivers the practical understanding of what can be done to reduce real-life vulnerability to prospective memory failures. Given that lapses of prospective memory account for more than half of all daily cognitive errors, this should provide important social and economic benefits for all Australians.
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Taking advice: Limits and potentials of social decision-making in older age. Older adults are increasingly victims of financial fraud and abuse. While well-intentioned advice has the potential to improve financial decision-making, ill-intentioned advice can lead to exploitation. This project will use extensive behavioural testing to establish the factors governing how much weight older adults give to advice depending on the type of advisor, the type of advice, and feedback about advice quality. ....Taking advice: Limits and potentials of social decision-making in older age. Older adults are increasingly victims of financial fraud and abuse. While well-intentioned advice has the potential to improve financial decision-making, ill-intentioned advice can lead to exploitation. This project will use extensive behavioural testing to establish the factors governing how much weight older adults give to advice depending on the type of advisor, the type of advice, and feedback about advice quality. The outcome will be a model of the influence of advice on decision-making in ageing. This will provide an evidence base to create best practice guidelines, interventions, and decision aids that will reduce exploitation and increase the independence and wellbeing of Australia’s rapidly ageing population.Read moreRead less
Reducing social frailty in late adulthood. Social frailty is one of the most troubling and potentially devastating threats to healthy adult ageing, and refers broadly to low social engagement status. This project aims to test how age-related changes in the abilities that allow us to perceive, interpret and process social information drive resilience and risk for this important threat to successful ageing, and then leverage these data to create a training tool that directly targets those abilitie ....Reducing social frailty in late adulthood. Social frailty is one of the most troubling and potentially devastating threats to healthy adult ageing, and refers broadly to low social engagement status. This project aims to test how age-related changes in the abilities that allow us to perceive, interpret and process social information drive resilience and risk for this important threat to successful ageing, and then leverage these data to create a training tool that directly targets those abilities identified as being most strongly linked to social frailty. Enhancing older adults' resilience to social frailty should generate significant and far-reaching benefits, including greater independence of ageing Australians, and reduced burden on health and welfare support infrastructure. Read moreRead less
Increasing advance personal planning by older adults. This project aims to increase the uptake of advance personal planning among people aged 65 years or over in the community by developing, implementing and evaluating a community action model. People have a legal right to engage in advance personal planning, a process that helps them discuss and document their financial, personal and health preferences, in case they later lose the ability to make or communicate decisions. Few people plan ahead, ....Increasing advance personal planning by older adults. This project aims to increase the uptake of advance personal planning among people aged 65 years or over in the community by developing, implementing and evaluating a community action model. People have a legal right to engage in advance personal planning, a process that helps them discuss and document their financial, personal and health preferences, in case they later lose the ability to make or communicate decisions. Few people plan ahead, even though it can reduce the likelihood of financial exploitation, family conflict and unwanted medical care. This project aims to provide a model of community action to build capacity and collaboration across social services and improve the wellbeing of older people.Read moreRead less
Stereotype threat, disengagement, and wellbeing among older employees. This project aims to identify when and how stereotype threat leads to disengagement among older workers and consequences for their wellbeing. Expected outcomes include a better understanding of the factors that predict who will experience disengagement at work, withdrawal of effort, reduced job satisfaction, and increased likelihood of quitting as a result of demeaning age-related stereotypes. The project’s results should pro ....Stereotype threat, disengagement, and wellbeing among older employees. This project aims to identify when and how stereotype threat leads to disengagement among older workers and consequences for their wellbeing. Expected outcomes include a better understanding of the factors that predict who will experience disengagement at work, withdrawal of effort, reduced job satisfaction, and increased likelihood of quitting as a result of demeaning age-related stereotypes. The project’s results should provide a clearer theoretical understanding of stereotype threat and can be used to inform strategies for enhancing engagement at work. This project should benefit and improve the working lives of older employees.Read moreRead less
Financial decision making in late adulthood. The project aims to examine links between cognitive changes and financial decision-making in late adulthood and also to assess the preparedness of the elderly to combat financial risks due to age-related cognitive decline. Further, it intends to examine how age, education, wealth, health, and other environmental factors influence transfer of financial decision-making responsibilities to spouses or others. It is expected that the research will provide ....Financial decision making in late adulthood. The project aims to examine links between cognitive changes and financial decision-making in late adulthood and also to assess the preparedness of the elderly to combat financial risks due to age-related cognitive decline. Further, it intends to examine how age, education, wealth, health, and other environmental factors influence transfer of financial decision-making responsibilities to spouses or others. It is expected that the research will provide a greater understanding of how cognitive functioning and other factors affect older adults’ financial capacity and willingness to delegate decision-making responsibilities. This understanding could be used to inform policy initiatives to protect elderly individuals and their family members from the risk of financial mismanagement.Read moreRead less
Ageing drivers: Cognitive ageing and technology. This project aims to enhance our understanding of whether cognitive changes associated with ageing impacts older drivers' use of emerging vehicle automation and assistive technologies. Through analysis of insurance claims databases, a large consumer survey and a naturalistic driving study, evidence will be obtained on how ageing and cognition interact with assistive technology. Findings will inform older drivers, government policy makers and indus ....Ageing drivers: Cognitive ageing and technology. This project aims to enhance our understanding of whether cognitive changes associated with ageing impacts older drivers' use of emerging vehicle automation and assistive technologies. Through analysis of insurance claims databases, a large consumer survey and a naturalistic driving study, evidence will be obtained on how ageing and cognition interact with assistive technology. Findings will inform older drivers, government policy makers and industry on ageing, cognitive changes and the use of assistive technology in vehicles. This will provide benefits for older drivers by promoting optimal driving which will enhance social engagement as well as safety. Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100084
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$447,148.00
Summary
Creative ageing through transformative engagement with music. This project aims to evaluate how participation in music activities can foster personal growth, self-efficacy and purpose amongst older adults. Using a novel hybrid theoretical framework, it will generate new knowledge about what elements in music activities deliver such transformative effects and how to widen access. Expected outcomes include a blueprint for transformative music activities, and resources to design them, as well as gu ....Creative ageing through transformative engagement with music. This project aims to evaluate how participation in music activities can foster personal growth, self-efficacy and purpose amongst older adults. Using a novel hybrid theoretical framework, it will generate new knowledge about what elements in music activities deliver such transformative effects and how to widen access. Expected outcomes include a blueprint for transformative music activities, and resources to design them, as well as guidelines and an online, interactive map to make them more widely accessible to our ageing population. Benefits will be improved wellbeing and quality of life for older adults and carers, guidance for music groups, and resources and recommendations for aged-care providers to implement music activities.Read moreRead less
Emerging technologies for enrichment in old age: A critical perspective. This project aims to generate knowledge about older adults' experiences with emerging technologies used for social and emotional enrichment. Technologies like virtual reality are said to offer social benefits for those in advanced old age, but we have limited knowledge about the issues that can impede older adults’ experiences with these technologies and even cause harm for vulnerable users. This project seeks to identify e ....Emerging technologies for enrichment in old age: A critical perspective. This project aims to generate knowledge about older adults' experiences with emerging technologies used for social and emotional enrichment. Technologies like virtual reality are said to offer social benefits for those in advanced old age, but we have limited knowledge about the issues that can impede older adults’ experiences with these technologies and even cause harm for vulnerable users. This project seeks to identify empirically informed strategies for good practice in the design and deployment of emerging technologies for enrichment in old age. This should inform the future ethical design and use of emerging technologies to benefit the social and emotional well-being of older Australians.Read moreRead less