Challenge to promote change: both young and older adults benefit from contextual interference.

Lisa Pauwels,Kathleen Vancleef,Stephan P Swinnen,Iseult A M Beets

doi:10.3389/fnagi.2015.00157

Lisa Pauwels, Kathleen Vancleef + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2015.00157

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Abstract

Current society has to deal with major challenges related to our constantly increasing population of older adults. Since, motor performance generally deteriorates at older age, research investigating the effects of different types of training on motor improvement is particularly important. Here, we tested the effects of contextual interference (CI) while learning a bimanual coordination task in both young and older subjects. Both age groups acquired a low and high complexity task variant following either a blocked or random practice schedule. Typical CI effects, i.e., better overall performance during acquisition but detrimental effects during retention for the blocked compared with the random groups, were found for the low complexity task variant in both age groups. With respect to the high complexity task variant, no retention differences between both practice schedules were found. However, following random practice, better skill persistence (i.e., from end of acquisition to retention) over a 1 week time interval was observed for both task complexity variants and in both age groups. The current study provides clear evidence that the effects of different practice schedules on learning a complex bimanual task are not modulated by age.

Highlights

Motor learning, which is defined as a set of processes associated with practice or experience leading to relatively permanent changes in the capability for movement, is very important in every stage of life (Schmidt, 1988)
While some studies reported greater performance gains for younger compared with older adults (Swinnen et al, 1998; Shea et al, 2006), others reported similar learning gains between both age groups (Carnahan et al, 1993, 1996; Spirduso et al, 1993; Van Dijk et al, 2007) or even the other way around with greater performance improvements for older compared with younger adults
Performance differences were tested before practice, over the course of practice, and at retention (IR and Delayed Retention (DR))

Summary

Introduction

Motor learning, which is defined as a set of processes associated with practice or experience leading to relatively permanent changes in the capability for movement, is very important in every stage of life (Schmidt, 1988). For older adults who may exhibit reduced performance levels (Swinnen et al, 1998; Voelcker-Rehage, 2008; Serbruyns et al, 2015), training may be an optimal tool to learn or to (partly) regain these skills (Voelcker-Rehage, 2008; Seidler et al, 2010). To what extent skills can be learned or regained in normal aging by means of training is dependent on several factors, such as task structure, task complexity, task difficulty, and familiarity (Voelcker-Rehage, 2008). While some studies reported greater performance gains for younger compared with older adults (Swinnen et al, 1998; Shea et al, 2006), others reported similar learning gains between both age groups (Carnahan et al, 1993, 1996; Spirduso et al, 1993; Van Dijk et al, 2007) or even the other way around with greater performance improvements for older compared with younger adults

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