Citation

Göthe K, Oberauer K, Kliegl R. Psychol. Aging 2007; 22(3): 596-606.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam, 14415 Potsdam, Germany. kgoethe@rz.uni-potsdam.de

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/0882-7974.22.3.596

PMID

17874957

Abstract

This study investigated whether older adults could acquire the ability to perform 2 cognitive operations in parallel in a paradigm in which young adults had been shown to be able to do so (K. Oberauer & R. Kliegl, 2004). Twelve young and 12 older adults practiced a numerical and a visuospatial continuous memory updating task in single-task and dual-task conditions for 16 to 24 sessions. After practice, 9 young adults were able to process the 2 tasks without dual-task costs, but none of the older adults had reached the criterion of parallel processing. The results suggest a qualitative difference between young and older adults in how they approach dual-task situations.

Language: en