Effects of attentional focus and cognitive loads on cognitive-motor dual-task performance

Performing a cognitive task while maintaining postural control (i.e., cognitive-motor dual-tasking) requires strategic allocation of attentional resources to optimize performance and stability. However, it remains unclear how such attentional strategies modulate dual-task postural control under varying cognitive loads. This study investigated the effects of attentional focus on cognitive-motor dual-task performance across different load levels.

This study employed a within-subjects factorial design. Fourteen healthy young adults performed a cognitive-motor dual-task involving maintaining a tandem stance while completing a change-detection task requiring detection of orientation changes in visual bars under different load conditions. Participants were instructed to focus on their posture, the cognitive task, or both. Postural performance was measured using sway velocity and 95% prediction ellipse area; cognitive performance was assessed by accuracy and response time.

The results revealed a significant interaction between cognitive load and attentional focus for accuracy, but not for postural sway or response time. In the high load conditions, lower accuracy was found in the equal-focus condition compared to the cognitive-focus condition. No such differences were observed in the low load conditions.

These findings suggest that the conscious allocation of attention to a visual spatial cognitive working memory task modulates dual‑task performance when the task is difficult (high load) but not when it is easy (low load). This finding highlights the potential role of attentional prioritization strategies in cognitive-motor dual-task performance trade-offs.