University of Salzburg

Welcome to the final episode of this seminar. At our final event, we came together one last time. As you see in the video, our students presented their ideas on how intergenerational learning could be approached and experienced. Each intergenerational group presented their idea in a very interactive way. Some groups focused on motion, some on hearing, speech processing & speech production, others on proprioception and cognitive abilities such as attention & focus. Consequently, we had a wide range of ideas, but almost all of them were based on illusions.

Ultimately, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Tulis-Oswald reflected on the two most important factors for an enjoyable intergenerational learning experience:

Getting to know each other a little better first, and then creating something together.

Last but not least, we would like to thank all the students for their engagement!

For our second intergenerational event, we met outside to get to know each other a little better and explore our balance and range of motion. Our regular and 55+ students therefore mastered a series of different parkour exercises. 

The first step was to test our strength by climbing stairs in a variety of motions. We also formed teams of two to guide each other around the paths and changing grounds while being blindfolded. Finally, we all tried slacklining. At first, most of the 55+ students didn't believe that they could do it. But in the end, they all became braver and braver! With a little help from a friend, we all managed to balance between the trees. After that, one man reported with a big smile on his cheek, that his mood had instantly improved and that he enjoyed finding his inner balance. The stereotype that young people are much fitter than…

That's probably what our guests asked themselves during their first encounter with proprioception-related illusions. To learn from another and with eachother how our perception changes as we grow old, we had three different agegroups. Therefore, we invited children from a local elementary school, regular students, and students aged 55 and older to experience how quickly or slowly their brains react. To maintain an intergenerational dynamic, we formed groups of five people (two kids, two regular students, and one 55+ student), who completed all the illusions together. They mastered the Pinocchio illusion, the rubber hand illusion, and two prism goggle stations. At these stations, they wore prism goggles that shifted their visual field 30° to the right while navigating a cone obstacle course or throwing juggling balls at a target board.

What we can see is, that the children shifted quickly between trials with and without goggles, whereas older participants had more difficulty.

In the interviews,…