| dc.description.abstract | Cognitive performance may decrease throughout aging, affecting, for example,
executive functions. In daily life, the damage to executive functions result in difficulties
in performing ordinary activities such as driving a car, in the financial management,
and in the fulfillment of obligations, leading to a reduction in social relationships,
depression, and finally isolation. It is a fact that cognitive decline is not just a result of
longevity, so other factors such as hearing loss, depression, hypertension, educational
level, genetic heritage, and eating habits are also among the elements that contribute
to poor cognitive performance. Regardless of the cause of cognitive involvement, there
is growing interest in seeking strategies for maintaining and improving cognitive
functions so that quality of life can be preserved during the old age. One possibility for
this purpose is the use of computational thinking which, despite using concepts from
Computer Science, is considered a logical and creative thinking process to solve
problems. The present study aims to develop a cognition in the elderly people using
computational thinking through unplugged activities. To achieve this goal, it was
performed a bibliographic survey, the execution of systematic reviews and the creation
of a control and experiment group to, respectively, apply a cognitive training created
by a psychologist and the computational thinking activities developed by the research
author. After the interventions in the groups, formed of elderly participants, the
collected notes were subjected to statistical tests. The results obtained demonstrate
that there was a statistically significant improvement in the notes of the participants in
the experimental group, being an indication of the effectiveness of the cognitive
intervention based on unplugged activities of computational thinking. | |
