Advantages of cognitive training using a chatbot

Cognitive training exercises are usually recommended for people who are experiencing cognitive decline.

I built a cognitive training bot to help someone I know who is experiencing mild cognitive decline.

The bot simply asks them a list of questions and collects their responses. It does not grade their response (i.e. tell the user if the answer is correct or incorrect).

Here are my takeaways.

Note

I am simply reporting on what I have personally seen. It goes without saying that none of this is intended to be medical advice. If you know someone who is experiencing cognitive decline, please consult a Doctor right away.

Takes only 10-15 minutes per questionnaire

It only takes 10-15 minutes to answer these 20+ questions inside a chatbot interface even for a person who has experienced mild cognitive decline.

Typing is faster than writing

One of the major advantages of using a computer to do this training is that it is much faster than using a pen-and-paper for people who already use computers and mobile phones, which is pretty much everyone nowadays.

Not overwhelming like a long pen-and-paper form

If you have a long pen-and-paper form with a lot of questions, it can be a bit overwhelming for the person who is filling it out. A chatbot interface asks exactly one question at a time and helps them focus their attention on that question.

Easy to collect statistics about responses over time

One of the most interesting things about Dialogflow chatbots (and this is actually true of most chatbot frameworks) is that you can gather statistics of how the user responds over time.

This will help you do a couple of things:

a) you can see if they are experiencing a decline over time by looking at the speed and quality of the responses

b) you can usually notice what kind of questions are challenging for the user, and try and come up with ways to improve their skills in that particular area if possible

Steady performance suggests prevention of further cognitive decline

Since the questions are based on existing memory tests, if the statistics show that the speed and quality of the responses are steady over time, it suggests prevention of cognitive decline.

Improved performance suggests reversal of cognitive decline

On the other hand, if the user completes the questionnaire more quickly over time without any degradation in the quality of the responses, it suggests a reversal of cognitive decline.

Once again, please note that this is my personal opinion. If you are not sure if my statement is correct, please consult with a Doctor. If you do know a Doctor who wants to measure this and verify this for themselves, I am happy to explain to them how to conduct these tests in Dialogflow.

Simpler than online cognitive training programs

In my opinion, a simple chatbot which asks the user to answer a list of questions on a regular basis is much simpler than some of the online cognitive training programs.

This does not mean it is better.

But it is usually much easier to get the user to complete it.

The questionnaire is practical and customizable

Also, you might have noticed that this questionnaire is based on the test that is already used to test someone’s cognitive decline. In other words, the questionnaire bot is a very practical approach for cognitive training.

In addition, it is also quite customizable. You can take a look at the response statistics inside Dialogflow and decide if you want to add/remove questions based on the user’s responses.

About this website

BotFlo1 was created by Aravind Mohanoor as a website which provided training and tools for non-programmers who were2 building Dialogflow chatbots.

This website has now expanded into other topics in Natural Language Processing, including the recent Large Language Models (GPT etc.) with a special focus on helping non-programmers identify and use the right tool for their specific NLP task. 

For example, when not to use GPT

1 BotFlo was previously called MiningBusinessData. That is why you see that name in many videos

2 And still are building Dialogflow chatbots. Dialogflow ES first evolved into Dialogflow CX, and Dialogflow CX itself evolved to add Generative AI features in mid-2023