Visual Arts Interventions With Older Adults

Feasibility and Preliminary Effects of a Drawing-based Intervention on Cognition and Wellbeing of Community-Dwelling Adults at Risk for ADRD

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: Feasibility Study
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Arts engagement through digital galleries; Behavioral: Training in observational drawing

Detailed Description

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
• Enrollment (Actual): 40
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Massachusetts
    • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02115
      • Northeastern University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 55-85 years of age
• Able to understand and speak English and follow study procedures
• Does not have a psychological or neurological condition that would prevent from being able to give consent to participate

Exclusion Criteria:

• Formal diagnosis of dementia or other neurological disease, including Mild Cognitive Impairment
• Abnormal visual acuity prohibitive of tablet-based training
• Physical handicap (motor or perceptual) that would impede training procedures
• Medical illness requiring treatment and/or significant absences during the study timeline

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Participatory Arts; Participants will develop drawing skills through learning specific techniques and deliberately engaging cognitive domains such as perception, visuospatial reasoning, attention, and processing speed. The intervention is completed in a hybrid format where lessons are completed online and practice is completed in a sketchbook and drawing things from life. Prompts are provided to guide daily practice sessions. Techniques learned include contour drawing, gesture drawing, negative space drawing.	Behavioral: Training in observational drawing; Learning about and practicing drawing from observation with training adding up to 2 hours a week; Documenting progress and reflection writing
Active Comparator: Receptive Arts; Participants will learn about different art periods and browse online galleries. The materials will be available online through a website through which participants will access and browse online galleries. Weekly topics include genres, subjects, or specific mediums. Prompts and vocabulary will accompany the galleries to guide their learning.	Behavioral: Arts engagement through digital galleries; 6 weeks of online gallery browsing based on different topics; 2 hours of weekly activities consist of reading and navigating technology; Reflection writing

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Acceptability - Age appropriateness	Perceived age-appropriateness of the course content, likert scale 0-5	Throughout training (weeks 1-6 of training)
Acceptability - engagement	Level of engagement with the course materials, likert scale 0-5	Throughout training (weeks 1-6 of training)
Acceptability - Welcoming	How welcoming participants perceived the activities, likert scale from 0-5	Throughout training (weeks 1-6 of training)
Feasibility - completion rate	% of participants who completed both testing sessions	At the post-test 6-8 weeks later
Feasibility - adherence	Number of lessons that participants completed, from 0-6	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	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	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.	Pre-test (baseline) and post-test 6-8 weeks later

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
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.	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.	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.	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.	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.	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.	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.	Pre-test (baseline) and post-test 6-8 weeks later

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Daily progress log - flow	Participants select how much flow they felt during a given session using a set of 18 questions and a scale from 1-5	After every training session (weeks 1-6 of training, up to 7 times a week)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Northeastern University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Susanne Jaeggi, PhD, Northeastern University; Principal Investigator: Aaron Seitz, PhD, Northeastern University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 1, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): July 31, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): September 30, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 11, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 15, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): October 17, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): August 7, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 4, 2026
• Last Verified: August 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Healthy Volunteers; Cognition; Learning; Aged; Perception
• Other Study ID Numbers: NU-DS-20241011

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Intervention materials and individual participant data (anonymized)
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Data will be available persistently at the conclusion of the study.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: There are no access criteria.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No