Evolution of the cognitive development program "inteligencia XXI".

Abstract

As is well known, the effects of aging encompass not only the physical faculties but also invade the intellectual capacities affecting what we know as cognitive skills, such as memory, attention span, different types of language, ability to solve problems, different modes of thinking, decision making, etc. This loss of faculties occurs progressively so that it begins with signs that are barely perceptible but advance inexorably to acquire a severity that can limit or severely incapacitate the subject. Just as there are many causes that accelerate these processes, there are mechanisms that can delay their effects or prevent this loss of intellectual skills. This is the reason why the field of Psychology has been working on programs that develop different types of mental activities that reinforce the cognitive aspects of each person and allow them to lessen the effects of the passage of time, in a way it would curb mental aging through training.  In order to face the challenges posed by the problems of aging, we propose a program that trains the cognitive functions that are most important in the maintenance of the active mind, among which we emphasize verbal strategies, the development and strengthening of emotional aspects to improve self-esteem, exercises that raise perceptual skills, numerical intelligence which is addressed from different points of view, we work on the resolution of problematic situations and decision making, and finally we include thinking skills that are the essence of most of the objectives proposed.