Search results for "Task"
showing 10 items of 1658 documents
Differential effects of age on subcomponents of response inhibition.
2013
Inhibitory deficits contribute to cognitive decline in the aging brain. Separating subcomponents of response inhibition may help to resolve contradictions in the existing literature. A total of 49 healthy participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing a Go/no-go-, a Simon-, and a Stop-signal task. Regression analyses were conducted to identify correlations of age and activation patterns. Imaging results revealed a differential effect of age on subcomponents of response inhibition. In a simple Go/no-go task (no spatial discrimination), aging was associated with increased activation of the core inhibitory network and parietal areas. In the Simon task, whi…
Age-Related Differences in 100-m Sprint Performance in Male and Female Master Runners
2003
This study was undertaken to investigate age-related differences in the velocity and selected stride parameters in male and female master sprinters and to determine which stride characteristics were related to the overall decline in the performance of the 100 m with age.The performances of 70 finalists (males 40-88 yr, females 35-87 yr) at the European Veterans Athletics Championships were recorded using two high-speed cameras (200 Hz) with a panning video technique and distance markers at 10-m intervals. Velocity, stride length (SL), stride rate (SR), ground contact time (CT), and flight time (FT) during the acceleration, peak velocity, and deceleration phases of the 100-m race were determ…
Age slowing down in detection and visual discrimination under varying presentation times
2017
[EN] The reaction time has been described as a measure of perception, decision making, and other cognitive processes. The aim of this work is to examine agerelated changes in executive functions in terms of demand load under varying presentation times. Two tasks were employed where a signal detection and a discrimination task were performed by young and older university students. Furthermore, a characterization of the response time distribution by an exGaussian fit was carried out. The results indicated that the older participants were slower than the younger ones in signal detection and discrimination. Moreover, the differences between both processes for the older participants were higher,…
Balance control interferes with the tracing performance of a pattern with mirror-reversed vision in older persons
2014
When tracing a template with mirror-reversed vision (or distorted vision), the sensory information arising from the movement does not match the expected sensory consequences. In such situations, participants have to learn a new visuomotor mapping in order to trace the template with an accuracy and speed approaching that observed when tracing with direct vision. There are several suggestions that such visuomotor learning requires lowering the gain of the proprioceptive inputs. Generally, subjects learn this task in a seated condition offering a stable postural platform. Adapting to the new visuomotor relationship in a standing condition could add complexity and even hinder sensorimotor adapt…
The role of verbal ability in the processing of complex verbal information.
1994
This study investigated the relation between psychometric mental-ability test scores and several reaction-time measures; a simple-reaction task, a choice-reaction task, the Posner and Mitchell (1967) letter-identification task, and a variation of the sentence-verification task. Scores on the Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices and the Verbal Subtest of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SATV) were obtained. The less complex information-processing tasks replicate earlier studies in which general intelligence was only marginally related to reaction-time measures. The sentence-verification task systematically varied task complexity. Several direct and derived measures from the task were significant…
Adult counting is resource demanding.
2004
Several recent studies on both the development of counting and working-memory span tasks have provided results that could be interpreted as ruling out any cognitive resource model for counting. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that, even in adults, counting is a demanding task that requires the allocation of cognitive resources. In a first experiment, we asked adults to count arrays of dots while maintaining 5 items in memory (either digits or letters). As we predicted, the concurrent memory load did not increase the rate of errors but induced longer counting times. In a second experiment, we asked adults to count using either the numeric chain or the alphabet while they mai…
The difficulty of the postural control task affects multi-muscle control during quiet standing
2016
The aim of this study was to compare the electromyographic (EMG) coherence between the lower limb and the core muscles when carrying out two postural tasks at different difficulty levels. EMG was recorded in 20 healthy male subjects while performing two independent quiet standing tasks. The first one involved a bipedal stance with the eyes open, while the second consisted of a dominant unipedal stance also with the eyes open. The obtained EMG signals were analysed by computing estimations of EMG–EMG coherence between muscle pairs, both singly (single-pair estimations) and combined (pooled estimations). Pooled and single coherence of anterior, posterior, core, antagonist and mixed pairs of m…
Predicting autonomic reactivity to public speaking: don't get fixed on self-report data!
2002
The study focused on the prediction of autonomic reactivity to public speaking by using self-report and objective data (other-ratings and behavioral data) of task-induced nervousness and task engagement. Forty-one individuals participated in the study. Heart rate and electrodermal activity were recorded during baseline and speech delivery. Stepwise multiple regression analyses indicated that self-report data of task engagement and nervousness largely failed in predicting psychophysiological reactivity to the speech task. After controlling for baseline values, demographic variables, and self-report data objective variables, however, were strong predictors of autonomic reactivity. Heart rate …
Nursing performance under high workload: a diary study on the moderating role of selection, optimization and compensation strategies
2015
Aims The aim of this study was to investigate whether selective optimization with compensation constitutes an individualized action strategy for nurses wanting to maintain job performance under high workload. Background High workload is a major threat to healthcare quality and performance. Selective optimization with compensation is considered to enhance the efficient use of intra-individual resources and, therefore, is expected to act as a buffer against the negative effects of high workload. Design The study applied a diary design. Over five consecutive workday shifts, self-report data on workload was collected at three randomized occasions during each shift. Self-reported job performance…
Driving on the motorway: the effect of alternating speed on driver's activation level and mental effort
2002
When most of the driving tasks are performed automatically, a driver's level of alertness may decline, as has been pointed out in the study of the phenomenon called 'highway hypnosis'. One possible countermeasure is to periodically vary the speed (Wertheim 1978), but the authors have not found any studies that directly assess the effectiveness of this countermeasure. The objective of our study has been to provide empirical evidence regarding the effects of this strategy on the level of driver activation on a motorway route in real traffic. In the present study activation level as indexed by a relative measure based on slow EEG activity tended to be significantly higher when speed was modifi…