Multitasking across the lifespan in different task contexts.

We assessed lifespan development of multitasking in a sample of 187 individuals aged 8-82 years. Participants performed a visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM) task together with either postural control or reaction time (RT) tasks. Using criterion-referenced testing we individually adjusted difficulty levels for the VSWM task to control for single-task differences.

Scoping review of dual-task interference in individuals with intellectual disability.

Dual-task paradigms can provide insights on the structures and mechanisms underlying information processing and hold diagnostic, prognostic, and rehabilitative value for populations with cognitive deficits such as in individuals with intellectual disability (ID). In this paradigm, two tasks are performed separately (single-task context) and concurrently (dual-task context). The change in performance from single- to dual-task context represents dual-task interference.

Toward a Listening Training Paradigm: Evaluation in Normal-Hearing Young and Middle-Aged Adults.

Objectives: Adults' most common complaint relates to understanding speech in noisy environments. Hearing aids can compensate for sensory loss but do not restore hearing to normal. Listening training has the potential to partially remediate these problems.

Lifespan changes in postural control.

Lifespan development of postural control shows as an inverted U-shaped function with optimal performance in young adults and similar levels of underperformance in children and older adults. However, similarities in children and older adults might conceal differences in underlying control processes. We mapped out age-related differences in postural control using center-of-pressure trajectories of 299 participants ranging from 7 to 81 years old in three tasks: stable stance, compromised vision, and narrowed base of support.

Athletes with intellectual disability: The effects of cognitive deficits and sports practice on bipedal standing balance.

Background: Athletes with intellectual disability represent a unique population who experiences the contrasting effects of cognitive deficits and benefits of sports on balance. This study investigated the combined impact of intellectual disability and sport practice on balance.

Method: Center-of-pressure excursion in bipedal stance of 2 disability (with and without intellectual disability) × 2 sport practice (athlete and novice) participant groups was measured in several balance conditions.

Perceptual grouping in complex rhythmic patterns.

Perception of simple temporal patterns has been shown to rely on accentuations in terms of intensity, pitch, or timbre, but also on grouping according to runs of the same events (intervals between successive sounds or light flashes) or significant gaps between them (Garner in The processing of information and structure. Lawrence Erlbaum, 1974; Preusser et al. in Am J Psychol 83(2):151-170 in 1970; Royer and Garner in Percept Psychophys 1(1):41-47, 1966; Royer and Garner in Percept Psychophys 7(2):115-120, 1970; Yu et al.

Cognitive-motor multitasking in athletes with and without intellectual impairment.

Purpose: We investigated cognitive-motor multitasking in 29 top athletes with intellectual impairment (II) recruited during the European Championship Games organized by Virtus (World Intellectual Impairment Sports) and 29 control (CT) athletes matched for age, sex, sports practiced, and lifetime accumulated practice hours.

Methods: Participants performed a cognitive task that required recognizing previously displayed visual objects among distractors. The motor task required maintaining a stable upright posture balancing on a rocking board placed atop a force plate which assessed center-of-pressure (COP) movement.

Reliability of center of pressure excursion as a measure of postural control in bipedal stance of individuals with intellectual disability: A pilot study.

The high prevalence of postural instability in individuals with intellectual disability (ID) warrants the need for reliable and practical postural control assessments. Stabilometry is a postural control assessment that has been widely used for clinical populations. However, the scant systematic knowledge about the reliability of stabilometric protocols for adults with ID renders results questionable and limits its value for clinicians and researchers.

Task-set control, chunking, and hierarchical timing in rhythm production.

We investigated task-set control processes and chunking in 16 novices and 16 amateur musicians, who produced unimanual rhythms in three experimental conditions: low-level timing tasks required isochronous tapping at constant target durations; sequencing tasks consisted of individual rhythmic patterns comprising multiple target durations; the task-set control condition required alternations between two rhythmic patterns. According to our hierarchical timing control model conditions differed in their task-set control demands necessary to provide rhythm programs for the sequencing of individual intervals. Transitions at predicted chunk boundaries were marked by increased frequencies of sequence errors, relative lengthening of intervals preceding the switch to a new rhythm chunk, and increased variabilities in intervals immediately following a switch.

Haptic two-dimensional shape identification in children, adolescents, and young adults.

We investigated the influence of image mediation (the process that translates tactile information into a visual image) on the development of haptic two-dimensional (2D) shape identification in 78 participants from five different age groups: preschoolers (4-5 years), first graders (6-7 years), fifth graders (10-11 years), young adolescents (12-13 years), and young adults (18-28 years). Participants attempted to haptically recognize everyday objects (three-dimensional [3D] haptic condition) and tangible line drawings (2D haptic condition) and to recognize objects presented through a serial visual "peek hole" version of the haptic line drawing task (2D visual condition). All groups were excellent at 3D haptic identification.

Movement timing and cognitive control: adult-age differences in multi-tasking.

Over the course of six sessions, 24 young (M = 19.40 years, SD 1.61) and 24 older participants (M = 71.

Leisure sports and postural control: can a black belt protect your balance from aging?

To determine potential benefits of intensive leisure sports for age-related changes in postural control, we tested 3 activity groups comprising 70 young (M = 21.67 years, SD = 2.80) and 73 older (M = 62.

Ecological Relevance Determines Task Priority in Older Adults' Multitasking.

Objectives: Multitasking is a challenging aspect of human behavior, especially if the concurrently performed tasks are different in nature. Several studies demonstrated pronounced performance decrements (dual-task costs) in older adults for combinations of cognitive and motor tasks. However, patterns of costs among component tasks differed across studies and reasons for participants' resource allocation strategies remained elusive.

The effects of aging on haptic 2D shape recognition.

We use the image-mediation model (Klatzky & Lederman, 1987) as a framework to investigate potential sources of adult age differences in the haptic recognition of two-dimensional (2D) shapes. This model states that the low-resolution, temporally sequential, haptic input is translated into a visual image, which is then reperceived through the visual processors, before it is matched against a long-term memory representation and named. In three experiments we tested groups of 12 older (mean age 73.

Age-related differences in attentional cost associated with postural dual tasks: increased recruitment of generic cognitive resources in older adults.

Dual-task designs have been used widely to study the degree of automatic and controlled processing involved in postural stability of young and older adults. However, several unexplained discrepancies in the results weaken this literature. To resolve this problem, a careful selection of dual-task studies that met certain methodological criteria are considered with respect to reported interactions of age (young vs.

Grouping by proximity in haptic contour detection.

We investigated the applicability of the Gestalt principle of perceptual grouping by proximity in the haptic modality. To do so, we investigated the influence of element proximity on haptic contour detection. In the course of four sessions ten participants performed a haptic contour detection task in which they freely explored a haptic random dot display that contained a contour in 50% of the trials.

Perceptual grouping in haptic search: the influence of proximity, similarity, and good continuation.

We conducted a haptic search experiment to investigate the influence of the Gestalt principles of proximity, similarity, and good continuation. We expected faster search when the distractors could be grouped. We chose edges at different orientations as stimuli because they are processed similarly in the haptic and visual modality.

The role of intuition and deliberative thinking in experts' superior tactical decision-making.

Current theories argue that human decision making is largely based on quick, automatic, and intuitive processes that are occasionally supplemented by slow controlled deliberation. Researchers, therefore, predominantly studied the heuristics of the automatic system in everyday decision making. Our study examines the role of slow deliberation for experts who exhibit superior decision-making outcomes in tactical chess problems with clear best moves.

Dual task performance of working memory and postural control in major depressive disorder.

Objective: Previous studies with patients diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) revealed deficits in working memory and executive functions. In the present study we investigated whether patients with MDD have the ability to allocate cognitive resources in dual task performance of a highly challenging cognitive task (working memory) and a task that is seemingly automatic in nature (postural control).

Method: Fifteen young (18-35 years old) patients with MDD and 24 healthy age-matched controls performed a working memory task and two postural control tasks (standing on a stable or on a moving platform) both separately (single task) and concurrently (dual task).

Lifespan changes in multi-tasking: concurrent walking and memory search in children, young, and older adults.

We investigated dual-task performance of cognitive (semantic fluency) and sensorimotor tasks (walking) in 120 children and adults from four age groups (9-year olds, M=9.52 years; 11-year olds, M=11.51 years; young adults, M=25.

The costs of taking it slowly: fast and slow movement timing in older age.

We investigated adult age-differences in timing control of fast vs. slow repetitive movements using a dual-task approach. Twenty-two young (M = 24.

Adaptation and reintegration of proprioceptive information in young and older adults' postural control.

We investigated age-related changes in adaptation and sensory reintegration in postural control without vision. In two sessions, participants adapted their posture to sway reference and to reverse sway reference conditions, the former reducing (near eliminating) and the latter enhancing (near doubling) proprioceptive information for posture by means of support-surface rotations in proportion to body sway. Participants stood on a stable platform for 3 min (baseline) followed by 18 min of sway reference or reverse sway reference (adaptation) and finally again on a stable platform for 3 min (reintegration).

Posture and cognition interfere in later adulthood even without concurrent response production.

We investigated adult age differences in dual-task costs in cognitive-sensorimotor settings without concurrent response production and with individually adjusted resource demands for the cognitive task. Twenty-four young adults (M=25.42 years, SD=3.

Long-term maintenance of retest learning in young old and oldest old adults.

This study examined the maintenance of retest learning benefits in young old and oldest old adults over an 8-month period in 3 cognitive abilities: reasoning, perceptual-motor speed, and visual attention. Twenty-four young old (aged 70-79 years, M = 74.2) and 23 oldest old adults (aged 80-90 years, M = 83.

Working memory and postural control: adult age differences in potential for improvement, task priority, and dual tasking.

We investigate dynamic posture control and working memory (NBack) retest practice in young and older adults, focusing on older adults' potential for improvement in the component tasks but more importantly in dual-task performance. Participants performed the 2 tasks in 11 sessions under single- and dual-task conditions. Posture improvement was observed with retest practice for both groups.