Background: Metamemory training (MMT) is a useful training strategy for improving cognitive functioning in the older adult population. Despite the advantages, there are limitations imposed by location and time constraints.Objective: This study aimed to develop a smart speaker–based MMT program and evaluate the efficacy of the program in older adults without cognitive impairment.Methods: This study used a case-control cohort design. The smart speaker–based MMT program comprised 3 training sessions per day, 5 days a week, for 8 weeks. Each training session took approximately 15 minutes. This program was implemented using smart speakers, not human trainers. All participants completed the Mini-Mental State Examination, Subjective Memory Complaints Questionnaire, Verbal Learning Test, Digit Span Test, fluency tests, and a short-form version of the Geriatric Depression Scale before and after training.Results: A total of 60 subjects (29 in the MMT group and 31 in the control group) participated in the study. The training group showed significant increases in the delayed free recall, digit span forward, digit span backward, and fluency test scores compared with the control group.Conclusions: This study confirmed the efficacy of smart speaker–based MMT in older adults. Home-based smart speaker–based MMT is not limited with respect to location or constrained by space and may help older adults with subjective cognitive decline without requiring intervention by human professionals.

Peer influence on students’ maladaptive behaviors has been well documented; however, the influence on positive development is less acknowledged. The purpose of this study was to examine anonymous peer influence on college students’ prosocial behavior, specifically behavior for the improvement of society (i.e., donating money or participating in social campaigns) via an experimental approach. The effects of indirect peer influence (IP) and direct peer influence (DP) on college students’ prosocial behavior were examined. A total of 125 college students participated in an online survey and laboratory experiment. Self-reported helping behavior, social concern goals, and empathy were measured by the online survey. In the laboratory experiments, reading of a prosocial paragraph (IP) and confederates’ prosocial behavior (DP) were manipulated. Participation in a signature campaign and money donation for illness were observed. Furthermore, 19 participants among those who donated were asked about their reasons for participating in such prosocial behavior. Prosocial behavior of anonymous peers (confederates) exerts a profound influence on college students’ participation in a signature campaign and money donation, whereas the reading of a prosocial paragraph has no effect. Furthermore, no participants reported peer influence as a reason for engaging in prosocial behavior. This finding supports and extends recent research examining the positive impacts of anonymous peers on prosocial behavior. Prosocial behavior is not only a foundational and consistent aspect of personality, as previous studies report, but is also highly malleable and unstable in response to immediate situations.

Intervention programs to relieve memory impairment and memory-related complaints in older adults with mild cognitive impairment are needed. Objective: The purpose of the current study was to assess the efficacy of a novel cognitive training approach—named multi-strategic metamemory training—in older adults with amnestic mild cognitive impairment. Among a total of 113 older adults with mild cognitive impairment, 66 participated in the memory training program (training group) and 47 did not (control group). Repeated measures of analysis of variance revealed that compared with the control group, the training group experienced: (i) a significantly greater increase in cognitive test scores of long-term delayed free recall (F_interaction = 6.04, p = 0.016) and fluency (F_interaction = 4.11, p = 0.045) and (ii) significantly greater decrease in their subjective memory complaints for everyday memory (F_interaction = 7.35, p = 0.009). These results suggest that the training program can improve verbal memory (i.e., delayed free recall), language processing (i.e., categorical fluency) and limit complaints in everyday instrumental memory activities of mildly impaired older adults.