Developmental Changes in Children's Abilities to Share and Allocate Attention in a Dual Task

How do children complete a seated combined cognitive and motor multi-tasking paradigm?

“…All children met the cognitive inclusion criteria however we hypothesize that the combined task required more attentional resources for children. This interpretation is based on our observations of increased reaction time while seated as well as findings from related literature citing the continued development and maturation of attention division (Irwin-Chase & Burns, 2000).…”

“…Once single task performance was equalized between participants, DTC differences between age groups no longer existed. The decrease in DTC, typically associated with age, was simply due to an increase in performance of each task separately combined with an increased ability to divide attention between tasks (Irwin-Chase & Burns, 2000). Irwin-Chase and Burns (2000) concluded that the development of attention division is not only due to ongoing central maturation but the increase in automaticity of attentional allocation with age that aids coordination of mental resources.…”

Gait in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

“…The ADHD group responded to an attention loading task by walking more slowly. Previous work using other dual task paradigms indicates that, in general, the dual task effects of middle school children are for the most part similar to those of adults [52,53]. It is, therefore, not surprising that the dual tasking effect on gait speed is similar to the response observed in other populations.…”

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

“…Instead they posit that the ability to prioritize one task over another or to strategically organize and schedule concurrent responses add to dual-task costs over and above general resource demands. For example, Irwin-Chase and Burns [16] showed that after individual differences in children's capacity for single-task performance were controlled for, age differences between 8-and 11-year old children only existed, when tasks had different priorities. In older adults, Kramer et al demonstrated similar abilities in implementing differential priority schemes as in young adults [17].…”