Age-related decline in divided-attention: from theoretical lab research to practical real-life situations

The purpose of this advanced review is to provide readers with an up-to-date synopsis of age-related changes in divided-attention abilities. An interdisciplinary approach is taken, supplying readers with evidence from very structured laboratory studies and findings from more ecological research studies that target real-life divided-attention situations (i.e., walking and talking). The review goes beyond the reported age-related declines in divided-attention abilities and offers the reader an overview of current cognitive (dual-task) training findings which suggest that these declines can be diminished with training. The contents of this review and the future directions proposed demonstrate that divided-attention research and its recent application to aging and mobility has become a major and fast growing scientific field of investigation. WIREs Cogn Sci 2013, 4:623-640. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1252 CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The authors have declared no conflicts of interest for this article. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.