Dual-Task Training Strategies and Aging
Abstract
The goal of this study was to examine whether or not variable priority training could be effectively used by the older population to improve performance on dual-tasks and whether or not this training transfers to different levels of complexity as well as to different tasks. The objective of variable priority training is to maintain the context of the complete task, while manipulating emphasis on each of the subtasks as a function of online feedback and experimenter instructions. Twenty-four subjects (ages 61 to 79) participated in ten sessions. Random assignment to either variable priority training (VP) or fixed priority training (FP) did not produce a gender balance. That non-withstanding, the results indicate that VP subjects had initial performance decrements related to the cost of learning a VP strategy. Once the strategy was mastered, however, VP subjects displayed learning where FP subjects did not. In transferring to new difficulty levels, no training advantages were evident. variable priority training showed benefits in performance on novel tasks or novel additions to a learned task.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADA258261
Entities
People
- Heather L. Pringle
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology