November 10, 2010
Written by Jeff Woodard

Bingo, arts, and crafts are all well and good, but Helga and Tony Noice knew there was more to improving quality of life in the world's ever-growing number of geriatric communities.

So they studied how actors learn and retain information –– and how those processes affect cognitive aging –– by conducting controlled field studies in which they teach theater to older adults.

The hard work of the UCC-related Elmhurst (Ill.) College faculty members have netted them the 2010 Gene D. Cohen Research Award in Creativity and Aging, presented by the Gerontological Society of America and the National Center for Creative Aging. The award will be presented at the society's 63rd Annual Scientific Meeting, Nov. 19-23 in New Orleans.

"My dissertation was on the mental processes of professional actors," says Helga, a psychology professor. "With Tony being an actor, I was familiar with how actors learned their roles. How actors memorize their roles is quite different from what people think."

The project gained momentum at a conference in the mid 1990s when they met two researchers, one interested in cognition, the other in development. Related Helga, "I mentioned my idea and they said, ‘We wish you could come to Switzerland. We have such a huge population of aging for you to draw from.' "

So off they went.

"As soon as we returned from Switzerland, we wrote a grant to the National Institutes of Aging and convinced them that this would be a very good experiment to carry out here under much more controlled conditions than we had in Switzerland," says Helga.

After 10 years of research, the Noices began to teach classes focused on enhancing cognitive function while delaying cognitive aging.

"You have to think like a character, and if you're thinking like a character, there are great physiological outcomes as well," says Tony, who teaches theater in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences.. "It changes the tone of voice, facial expression, quality of movement and body language."

By integrating mind, body and emotions, students improve their perception of their quality of life, he adds.

"We're really teaching them the basics of acting, which is telling the truth under imaginary circumstances," says Tony. "It's really being there. ‘There' always being the character."

Adds Helga, "In as little as four to six weeks, you can see a change."

The pair estimates that 15 percent of its study group comes from the 90-plus age demographic, with several subjects 95 or older.

Having produced 30 peer-reviewed publications on connections between the arts and human cognition, the Noices have had their work supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and The Schweizer Nationalfond in Switzerland. They've also earned three successive awards from the National Institute on Aging.

The Cohen award recognizes the seminal work of Dr. Gene D. Cohen, a geriatric psychiatrist and the first head of the Center on Aging at the National Institute of Mental Health. His research shifted the conceptual focus on aging from that of a problem to one of promise and potential.

On winning the award, Tony says, "It's a wonderful way to get our work out to a much broader population than ours, which has been specifically designated for the scientific community. We're not known in the aging community as much as in the scientific community."

United Church of Christ News Service