Synthetic Investigations in Rare-Earth Borates, Gallates, Oxides, and Gallium Oxonitrides at Extreme Conditions

The present phD thesis concerns synthetic investigations under extreme conditions of high-temperature and high-pressure. The high-temperature / high-pressure experiments, performed using a multianvil high-pressure device, led to the first single crystals of various rare-earth gallates, rare-earth borates, rare-earth oxides and gallium oxonitrides

Prospective Memory in Older Adults : Where We Are Now and What Is Next

M. Kliegel acknowledges financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).Peer reviewedPostprin

Age differences in prospective memory for everyday life intentions : A diary approach

Peer reviewedPostprin

Adult age differences in prospective memory in the laboratory : Are they related to higher stress levels in the elderly?

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Children's Planning Performance in the Zoo Map Task (BADS-C) : Is It Driven by General Cognitive Ability, Executive Functioning, or Prospection?

Preparation of this article was partially funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF; 100014_152841) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC; RGPIN-2015-03774).Peer reviewedPostprin

Social robot interventions for people with dementia:A systematic review on effects and quality of reporting

Background:  Using non-pharmacological interventions is a current approach in dementia care to manage responsive behaviors, to maintain functional capacity, and to reduce emotional stress. Novel technologies such as social robot interventions might be useful to engage people with dementia in activities and interactions as well as to improve their cognitive, emotional, and physical status. Objective:  Assessing the effects and the quality of reporting of social robot interventions for people with dementia. Methofs:  In our systematic review, we included quasi-experimental and experimental studies published in English, French, or German, irrespective of publication year. Searching CINAHL, Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Web of Science Core Collection was supplemented by citation tracking and free web searching. To assess the methodological quality of included studies, we used tools provided by the Joanna Briggs Institute. To assess the reporting of the interventions, we applied CReDECI 2 and TIDieR. Results:  We identified sixteen studies published between 2012 and 2018, including two to 415 participants with mostly non-defined type of dementia. Eight studies had an experimental design. The predominant robot types were pet robots (i.e., PARO). Most studies addressed behavioral, emotion-related, and functional outcomes with beneficial, non-beneficial, and mixed results. Predominantly, cognitive outcomes were not improved. Overall, studies were of moderate methodological quality. Conclusion:  Heterogeneous populations, intervention characteristics, and measured outcomes make it difficult to generalize the results with regard to clinical practice. The impact of social robot interventions on behavioral, emotion-related, and functional outcomes should therefore be assessed considering the severity of dementia and intervention characteristics

The delay period as an opportunity to think about future intentions : Effects of delay length and delay task difficulty on young adult’s prospective memory performance

Acknowledgements Preparation of the manuscript was partially funded by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada Discovery Grant (RGPIN-2015-03774) and Swiss Government Scholarship to CEVM. MK acknowledges funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). The authors wish to thank Chirine Ajram, Joelle Barthassat, Katelyn Brausewetter, Riley Brennan, Malik Djela, Alison O’Connor, and Delphine Paumier for their assistance with data collection. Funding This study was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (Grant Number: RGPIN-2015-03774 to Caitlin Mahy).Peer reviewedPostprin

Older adults have difficulty in decoding sarcasm

This research was funded by the Leverhulme Trust, United Kingdom (F/00152/W). We acknowledge the assistance of Francis Quinn in collecting the data.Peer reviewedPostprin

Mood effects on memory and executive control in a real-life situation

Peer reviewedPostprin

Prospective memory training in older adults and its relevance for successful aging

In research on cognitive plasticity, two training approaches have been established: (1) training of strategies to improve performance in a given task (e.g., encoding strategies to improve episodic memory performance) and (2) training of basic cognitive processes (e.g., working memory, inhibition) that underlie a range of more complex cognitive tasks (e.g., planning) to improve both the training target and the complex transfer tasks. Strategy training aims to compensate or circumvent limitations in underlying processes, while process training attempts to augment or to restore these processes. Although research on both approaches has produced some promising findings, results are still heterogeneous and the impact of most training regimes for everyday life is unknown. We, therefore, discuss recent proposals of training regimes aiming to improve prospective memory (i.e., forming and realizing delayed intentions) as this type of complex cognition is highly relevant for independent living. Furthermore, prospective memory is associated with working memory and executive functions and age-related decline is widely reported. We review initial evidence suggesting that both training regimes (i.e., strategy and/or process training) can successfully be applied to improve prospective memory. Conceptual and methodological implications of the findings for research on age-related prospective memory and for training research in general are discussed