امیر دانا

The present study aimed to compare the effects of physical, cognitive and combined rehabilitation on improving working memory and cognitive flexibility of the elderly living in the nursing home. This quasi-experimental study was carried out with a pretest-posttest design in four groups with the control group. The statistical population consisted of all elderly residents of a nursing home in Tehran. 48 people were selected randomly and divided into four groups (three experimental groups and one control group). For the experimental groups, intervention programs, including physical, cognitive, and combined rehabilitation, were conducted in three sessions of one hour each week for two months. The data were collected using a working memory capacity scale and a cognitive flexibility inventory (CFI). Data was analyzed using a one-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and Bonferroni post hoc test using SPSS software version 22. The results showed that all three types of rehabilitation programs have a significant effect on improving the working memory and cognitive flexibility of the elderly (P <0.001). Also, the mean of the groups in the pre-test and post-test stages showed that among the three programs, the combined rehabilitation program had more efficacy in improving the working memory and cognitive flexibility of the elderly and there was no difference between the two types of physical and cognitive rehabilitation programs (P> 0.001) According to the findings, combined rehabilitation programs can be effective in improving the working memory and cognitive flexibility due to the focus on both physical and cognitive aspects.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of task constraint in learning football chip through observation. For this purpose, 20 children (mean age of 11.6±1.7) participated in this study and were randomly divided into two groups (10 individuals). At the acquisition stage, one group watched the model and they were told nothing about kicking the ball, while the other group was told that the task is to kick a ball that should land on a specified target. At the acquisition stage, participants performed 30 attempts (three blocks of ten attempts each) which before the first attempt, they watched the model's film five times, and again, after each attempt they watched the film. After 24 hours, participants were again called to the lab and performed ten attempts as a reminder. The kinematic movement of the participants was recorded in order to compare it with the model. The results showed that the non-ball group had a more similarity to the model than the group with the ball. However, these results showed that in the speed variable, the movement of the group with the ball is more similar to the model. These results were explained in terms of goal-directed imitation theory as well as the existence of an external goal in the task.