scholarly journals ENERGY OPTIMIZATION DURING WALKING CAN BE A PRIMARILY IMPLICIT PROCESS

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan J. McAllister ◽  
Rachel L. Blair ◽  
J. Maxwell Donelan ◽  
Jessica C. Selinger
Keyword(s):  
Dual Task ◽  
Secondary Task ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Energy Optimization ◽  
Step Frequency ◽  
Single Task ◽  
Attentional Resources ◽  
Optimization Task ◽  
Tone Discrimination ◽  
Explicit Process

AbstractGait adaptations, in response to novel environments, devices or changes to the body, can be driven by the continuous optimization of energy expenditure. However, whether energy optimization is primarily an implicit process—occurring automatically and with minimal cognitive attention—or an explicit process—occurring as a result of a conscious, attention-demanding, strategy—remains unclear. Here, we use a dual-task paradigm to test whether energy optimization during walking is primarily an implicit or explicit process. To create our primary energy optimization task, we used lower-limb exoskeletons to shift people’s energetically optimal step frequency to frequencies lower than normally preferred. Our secondary task, designed to draw explicit attention from the optimization task, was an auditory tone discrimination task. We found that adding this secondary task did not disrupt energy optimization during walking; participants in our dual-task experiment adapted their step frequency toward the optima by an amount similar to participants in our previous single-task experiment. We also found that performance on the tone discrimination task did not worsen when participants were optimizing for energetic cost; accuracy scores and reaction times remained unchanged when the exoskeleton altered the energy optimal gaits. Survey responses suggest that dual-task participants were largely unaware of the changes they made to their gait to optimize energy, whereas single-task participants were more aware of their gait changes yet did not leverage this explicit awareness to improve gait optimization. Collectively, our results suggest that energy optimization is primarily an implicit process, allowing attentional resources to be directed toward other cognitive and motor objectives during walking.Summary statementPeople can adapt to energy optimal walking patterns without being consciously aware they are doing so. This allows people to discover energetically efficient gaits while preserving attentional resources for other tasks.

scholarly journals Energy optimization during walking involves implicit processing

2021 ◽  
Vol 224 (17) ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan J. McAllister ◽  
Rachel L. Blair ◽  
J. Maxwell Donelan ◽  
Jessica C. Selinger
Keyword(s):  
Dual Task ◽  
Secondary Task ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Energy Optimization ◽  
The Body ◽  
Step Frequency ◽  
Implicit Processing ◽  
Single Task ◽  
Optimization Task ◽  
Tone Discrimination

ABSTRACT Gait adaptations, in response to novel environments, devices or changes to the body, can be driven by the continuous optimization of energy expenditure. However, whether energy optimization involves implicit processing (occurring automatically and with minimal cognitive attention), explicit processing (occurring consciously with an attention-demanding strategy) or both in combination remains unclear. Here, we used a dual-task paradigm to probe the contributions of implicit and explicit processes in energy optimization during walking. To create our primary energy optimization task, we used lower-limb exoskeletons to shift people's energetically optimal step frequency to frequencies lower than normally preferred. Our secondary task, designed to draw explicit attention from the optimization task, was an auditory tone discrimination task. We found that adding this secondary task did not prevent energy optimization during walking; participants in our dual-task experiment adapted their step frequency toward the optima by an amount and at a rate similar to participants in our previous single-task experiment. We also found that performance on the tone discrimination task did not worsen when participants were adapting toward energy optima; accuracy scores and reaction times remained unchanged when the exoskeleton altered the energy optimal gaits. Survey responses suggest that dual-task participants were largely unaware of the changes they made to their gait during adaptation, whereas single-task participants were more aware of their gait changes yet did not leverage this explicit awareness to improve gait adaptation. Collectively, our results suggest that energy optimization involves implicit processing, allowing attentional resources to be directed toward other cognitive and motor objectives during walking.

Learning of across- and within-task contingencies modulates partial-repetition costs in dual-tasking

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lasse Pelzer ◽  
Christoph Naefgen ◽  
Robert Gaschler ◽  
Hilde Haider
Keyword(s):  
Dual Task ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Experimental Approach ◽  
Feature Binding ◽  
Dual Tasking ◽  
Single Task ◽  
Task Set ◽  
Task Processing ◽  
Tone Discrimination ◽  
Task Sets

AbstractDual-task costs might result from confusions on the task-set level as both tasks are not represented as distinct task-sets, but rather being integrated into a single task-set. This suggests that events in the two tasks are stored and retrieved together as an integrated memory episode. In a series of three experiments, we tested for such integrated task processing and whether it can be modulated by regularities between the stimuli of the two tasks (across-task contingencies) or by sequential regularities within one of the tasks (within-task contingencies). Building on the experimental approach of feature binding in action control, we tested whether the participants in a dual-tasking experiment will show partial-repetition costs: they should be slower when only the stimulus in one of the two tasks is repeated from Trial n − 1 to Trial n than when the stimuli in both tasks repeat. In all three experiments, the participants processed a visual-manual and an auditory-vocal tone-discrimination task which were always presented concurrently. In Experiment 1, we show that retrieval of Trial n − 1 episodes is stable across practice if the stimulus material is drawn randomly. Across-task contingencies (Experiment 2) and sequential regularities within a task (Experiment 3) can compete with n − 1-based retrieval leading to a reduction of partial-repetition costs with practice. Overall the results suggest that participants do not separate the processing of the two tasks, yet, within-task contingencies might reduce integrated task processing.

Combining Letter-Matching and Tone Discrimination: Evidence of Automatic Perceptual and Spatial Congruity Effects

1993 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-180
Author(s):  
Duane J. Page ◽  
Jerry G. Ells
Keyword(s):  
Target Letter ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Secondary Task ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Letter Pair ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Process Theory ◽  
Attentional Processes ◽  
Identical Letter ◽  
Tone Discrimination

Dual task and priming paradigms were combined to investigate the distinction between automatic and attentional processes. Subjects in two experiments performed a primed letter-matching and a tone discrimination task separately and concurrently. The interval between prime onset and letter pair (SOA) was varied from 50 to 500 msec. Cost-benefit analyses in Experiment 1 indicated that primes that matched target letter pairs began to facilitate performance at an SOA of 150 msec. Primes inhibited performance when they mismatched identical letter pairs at SOA 100. In the dual-task situation, the benefits of priming letter targets were reflected in probe latencies with no evidence of concurrent costs in tone latencies. Experiment 2 revealed that two tasks could be primed simultaneously as effectively as when each was primed alone. Findings are discussed in reference to Posner and Snyder's (1975a, 1975b) two-process theory of priming and the applicability of a secondary task technique.

Vision and Haptics Share Spatial Attentional Resources and Visuotactile Integration Is Not Affected by High Attentional Load

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 371-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Basil Wahn ◽  
Basil Wahn ◽  
Peter König
Keyword(s):  
Dual Task ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Sensory Modality ◽  
Human Information Processing ◽  
Visual Modality ◽  
Task Condition ◽  
Dual Task Condition ◽  
Single Task ◽  
Attentional Resources ◽  
Attentional Load

Human information processing is limited by attentional resources. Two questions that are discussed in multisensory research are (1) whether there are separate spatial attentional resources for each sensory modality and (2) whether multisensory integration is influenced by attentional load. We investigated these questions using a dual task paradigm: Participants performed two spatial tasks (a multiple object tracking [‘MOT’] task and a localization [‘LOC’] task) either separately (single task condition) or simultaneously (dual task condition). In the MOT task, participants visually tracked a small subset of several randomly moving objects. In the LOC task, participants either received visual, tactile, or redundant visual and tactile location cues. In the dual task condition, we found a substantial decrease in participants’ performance and an increase in participants’ mental effort (indicated by an increase in pupil size) relative to the single task condition. Importantly, participants performed equally well in the dual task condition regardless of whether they received visual, tactile, or redundant multisensory (visual and tactile) location cues in the LOC task. This result suggests that having spatial information coming from different modalities does not facilitate performance, thereby indicating shared spatial attentional resources for the tactile and visual modality. Also, we found that participants integrated redundant multisensory information optimally even when they experienced additional attentional load in the dual task condition. Overall, findings suggest that (1) spatial attentional resources for the tactile and visual modality overlap and that (2) the integration of spatial cues from these two modalities occurs at an early pre-attentive processing stage.

scholarly journals Memory encoding of syntactic information involves domain-general attentional resources: Evidence from dual-task studies

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (6) ◽  
pp. 1285-1296
Author(s):  
Evelien Heyselaar ◽  
Katrien Segaert
Keyword(s):  
Dual Task ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Target Sentence ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Memory Encoding ◽  
Single Task ◽  
Attentional Resources ◽  
Syntactic Information ◽  
Information Domain

We investigate the type of attention (domain-general or language-specific) used during syntactic processing. We focus on syntactic priming: In this task, participants listen to a sentence that describes a picture (prime sentence), followed by a picture the participants need to describe (target sentence). We measure the proportion of times participants use the syntactic structure they heard in the prime sentence to describe the current target sentence as a measure of syntactic processing. Participants simultaneously conducted a motion-object tracking (MOT) task, a task commonly used to tax domain-general attentional resources. We manipulated the number of objects the participant had to track; we thus measured participants’ ability to process syntax while their attention is not taxed, slightly taxed, or overly taxed. Performance in the MOT task was significantly worse when conducted as a dual task compared with as a single task. We observed an inverted U-shaped curve on priming magnitude when conducting the MOT task concurrently with prime sentences (i.e., memory encoding), but no effect when conducted with target sentences (i.e., memory retrieval). Our results illustrate how, during the encoding of syntactic information, domain-general attention differentially affects syntactic processing, whereas during the retrieval of syntactic information, domain-general attention does not influence syntactic processing.

scholarly journals Understanding the dual-task costs of walking: a StartReact study

2020 ◽  
Vol 238 (5) ◽  
pp. 1359-1364
Author(s):  
Jorik Nonnekes ◽  
Valeria Dibilio ◽  
Claudia Barthel ◽  
Teodoro Solis-Escalante ◽  
Bastiaan R. Bloem ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dual Task ◽  
Acoustic Stimulus ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Single Task ◽  
Response Initiation ◽  
Attentional Resources ◽  
Startling Acoustic Stimulus ◽  
Flexor Digitorum ◽  
Extensor Carpi Radialis ◽  
Startling Stimulus

Abstract The need to perform multiple tasks more or less simultaneously is a common occurrence during walking in daily life. Performing tasks simultaneously typically impacts task performance negatively. Hypothetically, such dual-task costs may be explained by a lowered state of preparation due to competition for attentional resources, or alternatively, by a ‘bottleneck’ in response initiation. Here, we investigated both hypotheses by comparing ‘StartReact’ effects during a manual squeezing task under single-task (when seated) and dual-task (when walking) conditions. StartReact is the acceleration of reaction times by a startling stimulation (a startling acoustic stimulus was applied in 25% of trials), attributed to the startling stimulus directly releasing a pre-prepared movement. If dual-task costs are due to a lowered state of preparation, we expected trials both with and without an accompanying startling stimulus to be delayed compared to the single-task condition, whereas we expected only trials without a startling stimulus to be delayed if a bottleneck in response initiation would underlie dual-task costs. Reaction times of the manual squeezing task in the flexor digitorum superficialis and extensor carpi radialis muscle were significantly delayed (approx. 20 ms) when walking compared to the seated position. A startling acoustic stimulus significantly decreased reaction times of the squeezing task (approx. 60 ms) both when walking and sitting. Dual-task costs during walking are, therefore, likely the result of lowered task preparation because of competition for attentional resources.

Automatisation Deficits in Balance for Dyslexic Children

1992 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 507-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela J. Fawcett ◽  
Roderick I. Nicolson
Keyword(s):  
Motor Skills ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Secondary Task ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Reading Process ◽  
Normal Children ◽  
Single Task ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
Task Conditions

Traditional theories of dyslexia have focused on components of the reading process. The Dyslexic Automatisation Deficit hypothesis takes a broader view, attributing deficits to an inability to become completely fluent in cognitive and motor skills. A series of experiments compared the balance of 15-yr.-old and 11-yr.-old groups of dyslexic children and normal children matched for age and IQ under single-task and dual-task conditions. There were no group differences in the single-task conditions. However, introduction of a concurrent secondary task led to a dissociation in that, whereas the balance of normal children was unaffected, the dyslexic children's balance was significantly impaired. It was concluded that the normal children balanced automatically whereas the dyslexic children did not. These results directly support the proposed framework.

scholarly journals Selection in working memory is resource-demanding: Concurrent task effects on the retro-cue effect

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yin-ting Lin ◽  
Edyta Sasin ◽  
Daryl Fougnie
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Secondary Task ◽  
Memory Test ◽  
Task Effects ◽  
Selection Processes ◽  
Dual Task Paradigm ◽  
Tone Discrimination ◽  
Dual Task Interference ◽  
Potential Issue

AbstractIn a retro-cue paradigm, after memorizing a set of objects, people are cued to remember only a subset. Improved memory from the retro-cue suggests that selection processes can benefit items stored in working memory. Does selection in working memory require attention? If so, an attention-demanding task should disrupt retro-cue effects. Studies using a dual-task paradigm have found mixed results, with only one study (Janczyk & Berryhill, Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics, 76 (3), 715–724, 2014) showing a decreased retro-cue effect by a secondary task. Here we explore a potential issue in that study – the temporal overlap of the secondary task response with the memory test presentation. This raises questions about whether the secondary task was impairing selection processes in memory or was impacting the memory response. We replicated their paradigm by inserting a tone discrimination task at the retro-cue offset, but we also included a condition in which the tone task and the memory test were temporally separated. In Experiment 1, performing the tone task did not impair the retro-cue effect. In Experiment 2, we added an articulatory suppression task as in Janczyk and Berryhill’s study, and we found that the requirement to execute the tone task impaired retro-cue effects. This impairment was independent of whether the tone and memory tasks overlapped. These findings suggest that internal prioritization can be impaired by dual-task interference, but may only occur when such interference is robust enough, for example, due to switching between multiple tasks.

scholarly journals Memory encoding of syntactic information involves domain-general attentional resources. Evidence from dual-task studies

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelien Heyselaar ◽  
Katrien Segaert
Keyword(s):  
Dual Task ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Target Sentence ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Memory Encoding ◽  
Single Task ◽  
Attentional Resources ◽  
Syntactic Information ◽  
Information Domain

AbstractWe investigate the type of attention (domain-general or language-specific) used during syntactic processing. We focus on syntactic priming: In this task, participants listen to a sentence that describes a picture (prime sentence), followed by a picture the participants need to describe (target sentence). We measure the proportion of times participants use the syntactic structure they heard in the prime sentence to describe the current target sentence as a measure of syntactic processing. Participants simultaneously conducted a motion-object tracking (MOT) task, a task commonly used to tax domain-general attentional resources. We manipulated the number of objects the participant had to track; we thus measured participants’ ability to process syntax while their attention is not-, slightly-, or overly-taxed. Performance in the MOT task was significantly worse when conducted as a dual-task compared to as a single task. We observed an inverted U-shaped curve on priming magnitude when conducting the MOT task concurrently with prime sentences (i.e., memory encoding), but no effect when conducted with target sentences (i.e., memory retrieval). Our results illustrate how, during the encoding of syntactic information, domain-general attention differentially affects syntactic processing, whereas during the retrieval of syntactic information domain-general attention does not influence syntactic processing.

Effects of Concurrent Manual Task Performance on Connected Speech Acoustics in Individuals With Parkinson Disease

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (7) ◽  
pp. 2099-2117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason A. Whitfield ◽  
Zoe Kriegel ◽  
Adam M. Fullenkamp ◽  
Daryush D. Mehta
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Motor Task ◽  
Task Condition ◽  
Connected Speech ◽  
Speech Acoustics ◽  
Single Task ◽  
Manual Task ◽  
Task Conditions

Purpose Prior investigations suggest that simultaneous performance of more than 1 motor-oriented task may exacerbate speech motor deficits in individuals with Parkinson disease (PD). The purpose of the current investigation was to examine the extent to which performing a low-demand manual task affected the connected speech in individuals with and without PD. Method Individuals with PD and neurologically healthy controls performed speech tasks (reading and extemporaneous speech tasks) and an oscillatory manual task (a counterclockwise circle-drawing task) in isolation (single-task condition) and concurrently (dual-task condition). Results Relative to speech task performance, no changes in speech acoustics were observed for either group when the low-demand motor task was performed with the concurrent reading tasks. Speakers with PD exhibited a significant decrease in pause duration between the single-task (speech only) and dual-task conditions for the extemporaneous speech task, whereas control participants did not exhibit changes in any speech production variable between the single- and dual-task conditions. Conclusions Overall, there were little to no changes in speech production when a low-demand oscillatory motor task was performed with concurrent reading. For the extemporaneous task, however, individuals with PD exhibited significant changes when the speech and manual tasks were performed concurrently, a pattern that was not observed for control speakers. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.8637008

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document