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Abstract
Previous research found reduced motor chunking behavior in older adults compared to young adults. However, it remains unclear whether older adults are unable to use a chunking strategy or whether they are just slower in developing them. Our goal was to investigate the effect of extended practice on the development of chunking behavior in healthy older adults. A group of young and a group of healthy older adults between 74 and 85 years of age visited the lab on 2 days. A sequence of 3 and a sequence of 6 elements were both practiced 432 times in a discrete sequence production task. We found that age differences in chunking behavior, as measured by the difference between initiation and execution of the sequence, diminish with extended practice. Furthermore, in older, but not in young adults, slow responses that are often interpreted as the first response of a next motor chunk were associated with a finger that was also slow during performance of the random sequences. This finding calls for more attention to biomechanical factors in future theory about aging and sequence learning.
Highlights
Older adults show impaired performance in the physical and cognitive domains
This study showed that when the older participants did chunk, their chunks consisted of fewer elements than those of young adults
Performance improved over Blocks, F(17, 578) = 83.1, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.71 and differentially so for older and young adults as indicated by a Block × Age group interaction, F(17, 578) = 7.6, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.18
Summary
Older adults show impaired performance in the physical and cognitive domains. These impairments are associated with increased difficulty in developing new motor skills (e.g., Wu & Hallett, 2005). Since Western societies are aging rapidly, it is important to better understand age-related changes in cognition and motor performance. Cognitive changes are normally accompanied by ongoing physical decline and these factors together explain limitations in motor performance and learning. Reduced hand function in older adults is explained simultaneously by deterioration at the biomechanical level (e.g., joints, muscles, bones) and changes in neural control (Carmeli, Patish, & Coleman, 2003; Seidler et al, 2010). More research is needed on how changes in motor learning can be explained by changes in cognitive and physical capabilities
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