L9- Age & Action Flashcards
(13 cards)
What are the causes and impact of ageing on movement?
Causes:
Physiological changes
-Reduced sensory sensitivity
-Biomechhanical attenuation
-Disease affecting limbs
-Disease affecting CNS
Impact:
-Negatively affect motor control, making it difficult to complete tasks
How may older adults compensate for motor difficulties?
Strategic slowing:
-Slow movement to make better use of on-line feedback and make corrective adjustments
-Allows them to match accuracy of young adults, but slower
-However, may be attributed to reduction in speed capability due to physiological changes
What was the design of Raw et al. (2012) experiment 1?
-Traced ‘path’, presented in a moving window at fast (24mm/s), slow (12mm/s) pace, or unconstrained (no window)
-Young and old group, all right handed
-Also manipulated path width
What were the findings of Raw et al. (2012) experiment 1?
Movement time & age:
-Older adults slower generally
-Slower for narrower paths across the board
Movement time & Path length:
-Young adults corner cut more with wide paths
Interpretation:
-Older adults compensate by going slower, staying nearer the middle of the path
-Allows to compensate for increase motor variability
What are the main age differences in driving behaviour?
-Young drivers more risky
-Old drivers have motor difficulties
-Old more risk-averse
-Old aware of their limitations
What are some compensation strategies for older drivers?
Avoidance- avoiding hazardous sitatuations
Adjustment- change behaviour e.g. reduce speed
What was the design of Raw et al. (2012) experiment 2?
-Projected driving scene onto screen. Steering task with no gears or pedals
-Slow or Fast
-Narrow, medium or wide
-Measured standard deviation of steering error (steering consistency) and steering bias (corner cutting)
-Young and old groups, all right handed, none possessing cognitive difficulties
What were the findings of Raw et al. (2012) experiment 2?
Steering error:
-similar at slow speeds
-Old adults struggle in fast condition
Standard deviation of steering error:
-Older had greater variability, especially in fast condition
-Fast condition more variability
Steering bias:
-Older cut corners less
-More similar in fast narrow condition
Time off road:
-Older more time off road
What were the conclusions of Raw et al. (2012) experiment 2?
1). Older drivers more variable
2). Older follow middle of the road more
-younger cut corners
-Compensatory strategies are limited (narrow road & fast condition)
Outline how older adults have reduced asymmetry in the brain?
Cabeza et al. (2002)- Aging brain shows greater bilateral activation during episodic memory/retrieval
Grady et al. (2002)- Reduced lateralisation in temporal and parietal areas
What did Raw et al. (2012) obserbe about motor asymmetry?
-Greater difference between hands for younger adults
-Right hand faster than left in young
What was the method and findings of Wang et al. (2011)
Rotated visual display adaptation task
-Trained young and old ppts in task using one hand, then tested on the other.
Young group:
-Showed adaptation from left to right, but not from right to left
Old group:
-Showed adaptation in BOTH directions
Reduced asymmetry may act as a form of compensation
Outline Harley, Wilkie, & Wann’s (2009) study on concurrent cognitive tasks
-Walking and stepping while performing dual task (verbal fluency)
-More variation in landing position of 70-79 group during verbal task
-Verbal task decreased toe clearance of trailing foot for 70-79 group (more likely to fall)
-Older generated more words. Younger reduced while stepping, older maintained verbal performance
-Older compensated, decreasing walking/stepping performance
-Older adults dont always adopt the best compensation strategy
