Dual task interference in implicit sequence learning by young and old adults

Motor sequence is the focus of too much of human's intelligent behavior. It is well-known that such sequential skills involve chaining a number of primitive actions together. Cognitive aging is the part of aging that causes decreased cognitive ability of the elderly such as learning. The aim of this research was evaluation of the attention-based demand for implicit sequence learning in youth and elderly.

In the first phase of research we designed software for the serial reaction time task. This software registered errors and Response Time (RT) in response to sequential stimulus. We have compared youth (n = 15) and elderly (n = 15) in two groups. Tasks were defined in 10 blocks, the first and the sixth block were random and the other blocks were sequential. ANOVA was used to compare response times and errors in different blocks, paired t-tests were used to compare regular and irregular blocks and independent t-tests were used to compare youth and elderly.

Results showed that RT and error decrease only in youth in regular and irregular blocks. Odd ball tasks performance did not have any significant difference.

Implicit learning in the elderly is affected by attention. Therapists should not use cognitive tasks for overloading during motor learning in rehabilitation and exercise therapy of older adults.