scholarly journals Low educational status restrains mental resources management in dual tasks

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 32-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariane A. Machado ◽  
Mariana C. Voos ◽  
Patrícia S. Teixeira ◽  
Maria E. Piemonte ◽  
Luiz Eduardo R. do Valle

Some studies have reported the influence of educational status on visual and motor tasks.The aim of this study was to compare the performance of adults with low (2.3±1.9 years of formal education) and high educational status (16.1±4.0 years) in a dual-task, composed of a visual and a motor task performed simultaneously.The visual task consisted of the presentation of two pictures that had to be verbally classified as equal or different. The motor task consisted of alternating steps from the floor to a stool.The tasks were assessed individually (simple-task) and associated (dual-task), and the performance in each condition was compared by ANOVAs. The low educational status group (LESG) committed more errors in the visual stimuli classification and performed a lower number of alternations of steps per second when compared to the high educational status group (HESG). During the dual-task performance, visual task errors increased and the number of alternations of steps per second decreased for both groups, in comparison with the single-task. However, the LESG was less accurate at classifying the stimuli during the dual-task condition than the HESG. Our findings suggest that having only a few years of formal education might decrease the ability to manage mental resources in dual-tasks.

1970 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariane A. Machado ◽  
Mariana C. Voos ◽  
Patrícia S. Teixeira ◽  
Maria E. Piemonte ◽  
Luiz Eduardo R. do Valle

Abstract: Some studies have reported the influence of educational status on visual and motor tasks. The aim of this study was to compare the performance of adults with low (2.3±1.9 years of formal education) and high educational status (16.1±4.0 years) in a dual-task, composed of a visual and a motor task performed simultaneously. The visual task consisted of the presentation of two pictures that had to be verbally classified as equal or different. The motor task consisted of alternating steps from the floor to a stool. The tasks were assessed individually (simple-task) and associated (dual-task), and the performance in each condition was compared by ANOVAs. The low educational status group (LESG) committed more errors in the visual stimuli classification and performed a lower number of alternations of steps per second when compared to the high educational status group (HESG). During the dual-task performance, visual task errors increased and the number of alternations of steps per second decreased for both groups, in comparison with the single-task. However, the LESG was less accurate at classifying the stimuli during the dual-task condition than the HESG. Our findings suggest that having only a few years of formal education might decrease the ability to manage mental resources in dual-tasks.Key Words: Tasks performance and analysis, attention, motor activity, educational status, visual perception.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Maya Danneels ◽  
Ruth Van Hecke ◽  
Laura Leyssens ◽  
Dirk Cambier ◽  
Raymond van de Berg ◽  
...  

PURPOSE: Aside from typical symptoms such as dizziness and vertigo, persons with vestibular disorders often have cognitive and motor problems. These symptoms have been assessed in single-task condition. However, dual-tasks assessing cognitive-motor interference might be an added value as they reflect daily life situations better. Therefore, the 2BALANCE protocol was developed. In the current study, the test-retest reliability of this protocol was assessed. METHODS: The 2BALANCE protocol was performed twice in 20 healthy young adults with an in-between test interval of two weeks. Two motor tasks and five different cognitive tasks were performed in single and dual-task condition. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), the standard error of measurement, and the minimal detectable difference were calculated. RESULTS: All cognitive tasks, with the exception of the mental rotation task, had favorable reliability results (0.26≤ICC≤0.91). The dynamic motor task indicated overall substantial reliability values in all conditions (0.67≤ICC≤0.98). Similar results were found for the static motor task during dual-tasking (0.50≤ICC≤0.92), but were slightly lower in single-task condition (–0.26≤ICC≤0.75). CONCLUSIONS: The 2BALANCE protocol was overall consistent across trials. However, the mental rotation task showed lowest reliability values.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hogene Kim ◽  
Hyun-Ki Kim ◽  
Nayoung Kim ◽  
Chang S. Nam

BackgroundAdults with stroke need to perform cognitive–motor dual tasks during their day-to-day activities. However, they face several challenges owing to their impaired motor and cognitive functions.ObjectiveThis case-controlled pilot study investigates the speed and accuracy tradeoffs in adults with stroke while performing cognitive–upper limb motor dual tasks.MethodsTen adults with stroke and seven similar-aged controls participated in this study. The participants used a robotic arm for the single motor task and participated in either the serial sevens (S7) or the controlled oral word association test (COWAT) for single-cognitive task. For the dual task, the participants performed the motor and cognitive components simultaneously. Their speed and accuracy were measured for the motor and cognitive tasks, respectively.ResultsTwo-sample t-statistics indicated that the participants with stroke exhibited a lower motor accuracy in the cross task than in the circle task. The cognitive speed and motor accuracy registered by the subjects with stroke in the dual task significantly decreased. There was a negative linear correlation between motor speed and accuracy in the subjects with stroke when the COWAT task was performed in conjunction with the cross task (ρ = −0.6922, p = 0.0388).ConclusionsThis study proves the existence of cognitive–upper limb motor interference in adults with stroke while performing dual tasks, based on the observation that their performance during one or both dual tasks deteriorated compared to that during the single task. Both speed and accuracy were complementary parameters that may indicate clinical effectiveness in motor and cognitive outcomes in individuals with stroke.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takehide Kimura ◽  
Fuminari Kaneko ◽  
Takashi Nagamine

Recently, some studies revealed that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) reduces dual-task interference. Since there are countless combinations of dual-tasks, it remains unclear whether stable effects by tDCS can be observed on dual-task interference. An aim of the present study was to investigate whether the effects of tDCS on dual-task interference change depend on the dual-task content. We adopted two combinations of dual-tasks, i.e., a word task while performing a tandem task (word-tandem dual-task) and a classic Stroop task while performing a tandem task (Stroop-tandem dual-task). We expected that the Stroop task would recruit the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and require involvement of executive function to greater extent than the word task. Subsequently, we hypothesized that anodal tDCS over the DLPFC would improve executive function and result in more effective reduction of dual-task interference in the Stroop-tandem dual-task than in the word-tandem dual-task. Anodal or cathodal tDCS was applied over the DLPFC or the supplementary motor area using a constant current of 2.0 mA for 20 min. According to our results, dual-task interference and the task performances of each task under the single-task condition were not changed after applying any settings of tDCS. However, anodal tDCS over the left DLPFC significantly improved the word task performance immediately after tDCS under the dual-task condition. Our findings suggested that the effect of anodal tDCS over the left DLPFC varies on the task performance under the dual-task condition was changed depending on the dual-task content.


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 621-621
Author(s):  
M A Kelly ◽  
N Morelli ◽  
H L Clayton ◽  
A M Parks ◽  
N R Heebner ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective To investigate the effect of a cognitive task on postural control during treadmill walking. We hypothesized that postural sway acceleration would decrease during dual-task compared to single-task gait. Method Ten (5 females, 5 males) physically active, healthy young adults (Age: 22.50 ± 3.01) with no history of cognitive deficits or head injury were recruited from a University campus for this cross-sectional study. Participants reported to a biomechanics laboratory for a single testing session and completed two, 5-minute walking trials on a treadmill at 90% of maximal gait-speed under single and dual-task conditions while instrumented with a single inertial measurement unit (IMU) on the lower-back. During dual-task gait, participants concurrently performed a Stroop Test displayed on a mounted screen in front of the treadmill during the entire trial. Root mean square (RMS) of acceleration was analyzed in the medial-lateral, anterior-posterior, superior-inferior, and resultant planes during the dual-task trial. Paired t-tests and effect sizes (ES) were calculated for each sway plane between single and dual-tasks. Results No differences were identified between single and dual-task RMS acceleration in the medial-lateral (p = 0.98, ES = 0.01), anterior-posterior (p = 0.49, ES = 0.23) or superior-inferior (p = 0.98, ES = 0.01) planes. However, the RMS acceleration in the resultant plane was lower in the dual-task condition (Mean Difference: 0.031 ± 0.037; p = 0.02, ES = 0.85). Conclusions This novel dual-task gait paradigm utilized constant sub-maximal gait speed to investigate the influence of a sustained cognitive dual-task on postural sway using a single IMU. These preliminary results indicate that this dual-task gait paradigm may affect gross postural sway in healthy adults.


2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (6) ◽  
pp. 1401-1411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nichola Callow ◽  
Martin Gareth Edwards ◽  
Alex Lee Jones ◽  
Lew Hardy ◽  
Stephanie Connell

Imagery research has identified two main visual perspectives, external visual imagery (EVI, third person) and internal visual imagery (IVI, first person). Based upon findings from brain imaging literature showing that different neural substrates are recruited for IVI and EVI perspectives, and that IVI activates motor system brain areas, we hypothesised that a concurrent action dual task would cause greater interference in performance for IVI than EVI. In a first experiment, participants were allocated to either an IVI or an EVI group, and were tasked with moving an onscreen marker towards a target in three blocked conditions: imagery, imagery with a concurrent motor dual-task of sequencing, and a math control. An interaction between imagery group and condition was driven by greater root mean square error for participants in the dual-task condition in the IVI group compared with the EVI group. We replicated the experiment with an eye-tracking objective measure of IVI; the results again showed that participants in the IVI group made more errors in motor movements, and an interference effect in eye movements, during the dual-task sequencing condition compared with the EVI group. The results of the two experiments reveal that a secondary motor task does interfere with IVI, providing behavioural evidence that IVI appears to rely on motor system processes more than EVI. These results have important implications for the use of visual imagery perspectives across a number of domains, with this paper being an essential reference for those conducting visual imagery perspectives research.


2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (7) ◽  
pp. 2099-2117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason A. Whitfield ◽  
Zoe Kriegel ◽  
Adam M. Fullenkamp ◽  
Daryush D. Mehta

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


2010 ◽  
Vol 48 (9) ◽  
pp. 2517-2527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florence Rémy ◽  
Nicole Wenderoth ◽  
Karen Lipkens ◽  
Stephan P. Swinnen

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoxiao Zhou ◽  
Yan Wang ◽  
Jing Yu ◽  
Yujie Liu ◽  
Shousheng Xu

BACKGROUND - OBJECTIVE To explore and discuss the influences on 7~9-year-old children’s physical activity and cardiopulmonary endurance. METHODS Recruiting 1st and 2nd-grade elementary school students and their parents at an elementary school in Changping District, Beijing. The study made an investigation of PA level, economic and educational status on the subject families, and the other main contents including medical history and family history. The PA data of the parents were measured by the ActiGraph GT3X + accelerometer (Actigraph, Pensacola, FL, USA), and the children’s PA data were obtained by the revised PAQ-A. 50m*8 shuttle run were carried out to test the children’s cardiopulmonary endurance. RESULTS 36 families were recruited and completed the examination. There was a significant difference in the children’ PA scores between sPAf(PA sufficient family) (3.02±0.53) and iPAf(PA insufficient family) (2.61±0.58)(P<0.05), and the BMI of the two groups (15.63±1.95 vs17.77±3.67) showed great difference(P<0.01). The child from sPAf had better cardiopulmonary endurance than those from iPAf. The parent of high income, a high educational background had higher moderate to vigorous PA, and so did their child. There was a high positive correlation of the sedentary time and light PA every day of the husband and wife in a family. CONCLUSIONS The influence factors that affected the 7~9-year-old children’s PA level and cardiopulmonary endurance included their parent’s PA level, economic income, educational background, especially the mother’s PA played a prominent part. The study found there existed interaction of respective PA levels inside the couple.


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