Dual-task costs in aging are predicted by formal education

Abstract

The capacity to manage different concurrent tasks at the same time decays in older adults. There is however a considerable amount of inter-individual variability in this capacity even in healthy aging. The purpose of this empirical study is to investigate which factors help explaining this variability. A dual-task paradigm was administered to 64 older adults and 31 younger controls. In this paradigm, a primary simple response time task had to be carried out either by itself (single-task condition) or while concurrently performing a secondary subtraction task (dual-task condition). Dual-task costs were operationalized by comparing dual-task and single-task conditions. Older adults showed higher dual-task interference than younger controls. Within the older group, the influence of age, general cognitive abilities, performance on the secondary task, and years of formal education was assessed with a multiple regression analysis. The results showed that years of formal education in older adults were the best predictor that significantly explained a portion of the variance in dual-task performance. These findings extend previous literature by showing that formal education provides an important dose of cognitive reserve, which is useful to successfully implement cognitive dual-task management despite aging.

Better dual-task processing in simultaneous interpreters

“…This effect indicated that participants with SI experience were generally faster ( M = 1,218 ms) than participants without SI experience ( M = 1,385 ms). This dual-task advantage was not modulated since no covariate or interaction was significant [Amount of CI experience: F (1,44) < 1; Age: F (1,44) < 1; Amount of structured education: F (1,44) = 2.974, p = 0.10; SOA × SI: F (2,88) = 1.745, p = 0.18; SOA × Age: F (2,88) < 1; SOA × Amount of CI experience: F (2,88) < 1], except the combination of SOA × Amount of structured education, F (2,88) = 5.687, p < 0.01, = 0.11; the latter points to the influence of education (in particular, structured education in interpreting/translating) on dual-task performance (see also Vallesi, 2015 ).…”

“…The single-task and PRP dual-task situations resulted in behavioral data consisting of RTs and error rates for Task 2 and Task 1 (we start with Task 2 presentation, because of the presence of prominent PRP effect in this task). In single-task trials, we analyzed the resulting four measures (i.e., Task 2 RTs/error rates, Task 1 RTs/error rates) in the following model: mixed-measures ANCOVA with the between-subjects factor SI (SIs vs. no SIs), and the covariates Amount of CI experience (number of hours per week), Amount of structured education (in interpreting/ translating, in years) as well as Age (in years); particularly, the latter aspects are relevant to control for the proven effects of aging (e.g., Verhaeghen et al, 2003 ; Verhaeghen, 2011 ; Strobach et al, 2015d ) and formal education ( Vallesi, 2015 ) on dual-task performance. In PRP dual tasks, we added the within-subjects factor SOA (50, 100, 400 ms) to this model.…”

General Slowing and Education Mediate Task Switching Performance Across the Life-Span

“…There is consistent evidence that cognitive aging may be partially attributable to a decline in speed of processing ( Salthouse, 1996 ). However, high variability in the elderly population suggests that multiple factors, including life-experience, may play an important role in shaping decline of cognitive functions in aging ( Stern, 2002 , 2009 ; Vallesi, 2016 ).…”

Cognitive-Motor Interference during Walking in Older Adults with Probable Mild Cognitive Impairment

“…As compared with single-task standing or walking, the TWT effectively increases cognitive demand from condition to condition competing for common neural resources (Klingberg, 2000 ). This might represent an advantageous approach to examine how cognitive reserve (Stern, 2002 ) may be associated with better management of dual-task situations (Vallesi, 2016 ). Cognitive reserve refers to the potential to increase the efficiency and capacity of existing neural pathways and/or to recruit new pathways against the age-related and disease-related brain damage without developing cognitive deficits and/or clinical manifestations of disease (Belghali et al, 2017 ; Franzmeier et al, 2017 ; Gelfo et al, 2017 ).…”