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Abstract Many daily activities require performance of multiple tasks integrating cognitive and motor processes. While the fact that both processes go through deterioration and changes with aging has been generally accepted, not much is known about how aging interacts with stages of motor skill acquisition under a cognitively demanding situation. To address this question, we combined a visuomotor adaptation task with a secondary cognitive task. We made two primary findings beyond the expected age-related performance deterioration. First, while young adults showed classical dual-task cost in the early motor learning phase dominated by explicit processes, older adults instead strikingly displayed enhanced performance in the later stage, dominated by implicit processes. For older adults, the secondary task may have facilitated a shift to their relatively intact implicit learning processes that reduced reliance on their already-deficient explicit processes during visuomotor adaptation. Second, we demonstrated that consistently performing the secondary task in learning and re-learning phases can operate as an internal task-context and facilitate visuomotor memory retrieval later regardless of age groups. Therefore, our study demonstrated age-related similarities and differences in integrating concurrent cognitive load with motor skill acquisition which, may in turn, contributes to the understanding of a shift in balance across multiple systems.
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A Systematic Review Toward a Comprehensive Framework for Measuring Non-chronological Age
As populations age globally, there is a need to refine the understanding of aging beyond simply chronological age. Therefore, this study used the PRISMA framework to synthesize literature on alternative aging metrics beyond chronological age. We analyzed articles from 6 databases (SCOPUS, PsychINFO, Web of Science, CINAHL, Engineering Village, and PubMed) and selected 18 articles that explored factors that lead to older adults’ individual differences. Findings indicated the necessity of a consistent terminology that better describes one’s cognitive and physical functioning, such as “non-chronological age.” Also, the review found that daily cognitive, physical, and social activities may result in different non-chronological ages. A comprehensive tool to measure non-chronological age and thereby provide a more accurate representation of aging that incorporates these critical factors is needed. The findings may contribute to the development of theories in non-chronological age.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2153504
- PAR ID:
- 10550075
- Publisher / Repository:
- SAGE Publications
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting
- Volume:
- 68
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1071-1813
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 1-2
- Size(s):
- p. 1-2
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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