Multitasking and Aging: Do Older Adults Benefit from Performing a Highly Practiced Task?
Background/Study Context: The present study examined the effect of training on age differences in performing a highly practiced task using the psychological refractory period (PRP) paradigm (Pashler, 1984,Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 10,358–377). Earlier trai...
| Published in: | Experimental Aging Research Vol. 40; no. 3; pp. 280 - 308 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Ltd
May/Jun2014
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=103936914&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 103936914 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 0361073X 1HO jtl: Experimental Aging Research issn: 0361073X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: May/Jun2014 vid: 40 iid: 3 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania artinfo: ui: 103936914 95832636 10.1080/0361073X.2014.896663 NLM24785592 103936914 ppf: 280 ppct: 28 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P tig: atl: Multitasking and Aging: Do Older Adults Benefit from Performing a Highly Practiced Task? aug: au: Allen, Philip A. Lien, Mei-Ching Ruthruff, Eric Voss, Andreas affil: Department of Psychology, The University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, USA sug: subj: Aging Task Performance and Analysis Skill Acquisition Repeated Measures Human Experimental Studies Germany Germany Paradigms Classification Sensory Stimulation Aged Young Adult Models, Statistical Utilization Reaction Time Energy Metabolism Prospective Studies Germany Pretest-Posttest Design Analysis of Variance Comparative Studies Aged: 65+ years ab: Background/Study Context: The present study examined the effect of training on age differences in performing a highly practiced task using the psychological refractory period (PRP) paradigm (Pashler, 1984,Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 10,358–377). Earlier training studies have concentrated on tasks that are not already overlearned. The present question of interest is whether task dual-task integration will be more efficient when single-task performance is approaching asymptotic levels. Methods: Task 1 was red/green signal discrimination (green = “go” and red = “wait”; analogous to pedestrian signals) and Task 2 was tone discrimination (white noise vs. a horn “honk”; analogous to traffic sound). The stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between Task 1 and Task 2 was varied (50, 150, 600, and 1000 ms). All individuals participated in eight sessions spread over 8 weeks (one session per week). Participants completed a dual-task pretest (Week 1), followed by 6 weeks of single-task testing (Weeks 2–7), followed by a dual-task posttest (Week 8). Results and Conclusion: Although older adults showed larger overall dual-task costs (i.e., PRP effects), they were able to reduce the costs with practice as much as younger adults. However, even when training on Task 1 results in asymptotic performance, this still did not lead to an appreciable reduction in dual-task costs. Also, older adults, but not younger adults, responded more rapidly to green stimuli than to red stimuli in the Task 1 training latency data. The authors confirmed this green/go bias using diffusion modeling, which takes into account response time and error rates at the same time. This green/go bias is potentially dangerous at crosswalks, especially when combined with large dual-task interference, and might contribute to the high rate of crosswalk accidents in the elderly. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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