This pilot study provides a preliminary analysis for the results from cognitive testing administered using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) as pretest and posttest applied after seven weeks of either cognitive stimulation training (CST), physical training (PT), or both and as follow-up after two months with minimal cognitive stimulation or exercise. Subjects were male (14) and female (12) long-term (mean 11 years) psychiatric residents in the psychiatric nursing home (PNH) of the Hualien Armed Forces 805 General Hospital. The free choice of subjects to engage in activities provided by the hospital precluded random assignment, while the small subject numbers precluded a control group and statistical significance. But analysis results indicate a substantial increase (2.4 points) from pretest to posttest, which is much more than earlier research using longer periods of CST training, though this increase was not maintained in the follow-up. Results for groups based on sex, age, level of education, amount of CST and combinations of treatments are discussed. The data indicate that adding PT to CST leads to only a relatively minor increase in MoCA score (2.9>2.4). Suggestions for future studies based on the results of this pilot study are also provided.

Chapter I. Introduction 1
Literature review 3
Chapter II. Objectives 7
Chapter III. Methods 9
Research site and participants 9
Brief description of the Dual-track Cognitive Support Program 12
Implementation methods 13
Testing procedures 14
Chapter IV. Analysis 15
Analysis strategies 15
Analysis results 17
Chapter V. Qualitative Observations 23
Chapter VI. Discussion 27
References 31
Appendix A. Testing Procedure Notes 39
Appendix B. CST Procedure Notes 43
Appendix C. Key to SPSS Variables 45
Appendix D. Individual Patient Descriptions 47
Acknowledgements 49

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