Feasibility and acceptability of a new web-based cognitive training platform for cognitively healthy older adults: the breakfast task
DOI: 10.1186/s40814-023-01359-2
archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified
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Summary
This pilot study evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of the "Breakfast Task" (BT), a novel web-based cognitive training platform designed for cognitively healthy older adults. The research was motivated by the public health need for effective interventions to maintain executive control, a cognitive domain critical for everyday multitasking that declines with age. While traditional cognitive training often fails to transfer benefits to real-life contexts, the BT utilizes an "emphasis change" (EmCh) approach within an ecological simulation of preparing breakfast. This method requires participants to dynamically shift attention between simultaneous tasks, aiming to enhance cognitive flexibility and promote distal transfer effects. The study specifically tested whether older adults could independently engage with this remote, unsupervised digital intervention. The study employed a single-arm design involving 24 participants aged 60–75 recruited from the New York City area. Participants underwent a five-session protocol delivered online twice weekly, with each session lasting approximately 45 minutes. The BT platform simulated two concurrent tasks: setting tables for guests and cooking food items with varying time requirements. The intervention progressed from supervised practice to unsupervised play, introducing increased difficulty through split-screen displays and EmCh instructions that prioritized one task over the other in specific sessions. Feasibility was assessed via recruitment rates, adherence, and retention, while acceptability was measured through post-intervention questionnaires. Performance metrics included the number of correctly set tables, cooking time discrepancy, and the range of stop times for cooked items. Results indicated high feasibility, with an 82.7% recruitment rate and 100% adherence and retention among those who completed the first session. Acceptability was rated positively; participants found the game interesting and enjoyable, reported minimal difficulty accessing the platform or understanding instructions without supervision, and did not view the task as childish. Performance data revealed a significant learning curve across sessions. Although performance initially dipped when task complexity increased (split-screen mode), it improved in later sessions. Crucially, the EmCh instruction significantly improved performance on the emphasized task, confirming that participants could successfully adjust their attention allocation strategies. However, cooking task performance remained highly variable compared to table setting. The findings provide preliminary support for the viability of the Breakfast Task as a remote cognitive training tool for older adults. The study demonstrates that this population can effectively use unsupervised web-based platforms and respond to emphasis change training protocols. These results suggest that the BT is a promising candidate for larger randomized controlled trials to investigate its efficacy and dose-response relationships. The authors conclude that while technical issues and session structures require refinement, the platform offers a scalable method for enhancing executive control and potentially improving real-world multitasking abilities in aging populations.
Key finding
The web-based Breakfast Task cognitive training platform demonstrated high feasibility with 100% adherence and retention, and good acceptability among cognitively healthy older adults.
Methodology
lab_experiment
Sample size: 24
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via author_sweep_intake on 2026-05-27 (2 acquisition events logged).
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | author_sweep | — | — | 3 | 2026-05-28 |
| archive | success | canonical_url | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-06 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| enrich | skipped | — | — | — | 3 | 2026-06-04 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 15 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
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