Scenario

There will be 20 participants that are between the ages 65-85

There will be 10 females and 10 males. Half will have attended a high education and the other half will have not

They will do a Mini-Mental State test (MMSE)to see where their cognition status is. The participants will also be asked to have an MRI to look at gray matter volume

If they score a 30 (MMSE) participants were considered normal and so no signs of cognitive decline if participants scored 20-24 it would be suggested to have mild dementia

Participants who scored a 20-24 MMSE were assigned to a 15-week social interaction program group (SI, n=10) or a control group (CON, n=10)

The Social interaction group will meet for a hour, 5 times per week for 15 weeks.

The control group will not have to participate in any interventions and were asked to continue their daily routine as normal.

Both the Social interaction and control group were asked to maintain a sleep, mood, and activity log throughout the 15 weeks.

Measurements of resting heart rate, sleep, mood, MMSE assessment, and neuroimaging of brain were performed pre- and post- intervention at the same time of day

Measurement:

a. Identify the key variables implied in your hypothesis and identify any additional variables that must be measured and included as control variables.

b. Provide more detailed information about each of these measure in three sub-sections:

Dependent variable(s),

Independent variable (s) and

Control variable(s).

c. For each of dependent and independent variable, state:

What instruments are used to collect the data (start with the concepts and end with the exact measures).

If they are from surveys, provide the exact wording of the questions and responses used (this can go in an appendix if it is too large). If multiple questions are used, state how these items were/will be combined (if applicable).

d. Justify the reliability and validity of the measures in your study, or state how you will assess the reliability and validity of the measures in your study.