title: Naturalistic assessment of executive function and everyday multitasking in healthy older adults.
abstract: Everyday multitasking and its cognitive correlates were investigated in an older adult population using a naturalistic task, the Day Out Task. Fifty older adults and 50 younger adults prioritized, organized, initiated, and completed a number of subtasks in a campus apartment to prepare for a day out (e.g., gather ingredients for a recipe, collect change for a bus ride). Participants also completed tests assessing cognitive constructs important in multitasking. Compared to younger adults, the older adults took longer to complete the everyday tasks and more poorly sequenced the subtasks. Although they initiated, completed, and interweaved a similar number of subtasks, the older adults demonstrated poorer task quality and accuracy, completing more subtasks inefficiently. For the older adults, reduced prospective memory abilities were predictive of poorer task sequencing, while executive processes and prospective memory were predictive of inefficiently completed subtasks. The findings suggest that executive dysfunction and prospective memory difficulties may contribute to the age-related decline of everyday multitasking abilities in healthy older adults.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Washington State University , Pullman , WA , USA.
authors.forename: Courtney
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: McAlister
authors.forename: Maureen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schmitter-Edgecombe
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D055815:Young Adult
references.citation: Psychol Res. 2000;63(3-4):279-88
references.pmid: 11004881
references.citation: J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2007 Sep;13(5):747-57
references.pmid: 17521485
references.citation: Alzheimers Dement. 2011 May;7(3):270-9
references.pmid: 21514249
references.citation: Mem Cognit. 2006 Sep;34(6):1236-49
references.pmid: 17225505
references.citation: Neuropsychology. 2012 Sep;26(5):631-41
references.pmid: 22846035
references.citation: J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1998 May;64(5):588-94
references.pmid: 9598672
references.citation: J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 1998 Nov;4(6):547-58
references.pmid: 10050359
references.citation: Neuropsychology. 2001 Oct;15(4):472-82
references.pmid: 11761036
references.citation: Neuropsychol Rehabil. 2009 Aug;19(4):583-602
references.pmid: 19058093
references.citation: Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn. 2007 Jul;14(4):370-93
references.pmid: 17612814
references.citation: Mem Cognit. 2011 Nov;39(8):1561-74
references.pmid: 21691876
references.citation: J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2003 Jan;9(1):31-44
references.pmid: 12570356
references.citation: Neuropsychology. 2009 Mar;23(2):168-77
references.pmid: 19254090
references.citation: J Clin Exp Neuropsychol. 2010 Jan;32(1):56-65
references.pmid: 19408184
references.citation: Brain Inj. 2004 Nov;18(11):1067-81
references.pmid: 15545205
references.citation: Acta Psychol (Amst). 2004 Feb-Mar;115(2-3):167-83
references.pmid: 14962399
references.citation: Br J Psychiatry. 1982 Jun;140:566-72
references.pmid: 7104545
references.citation: Neuropsychology. 2011 Jul;25(4):511-9
references.pmid: 21401259
references.citation: Clin Neuropsychol. 2000 May;14(2):187-95
references.pmid: 10916193
references.citation: Acta Psychol (Amst). 2004 Jul;116(3):285-307
references.pmid: 15222971
references.citation: J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 1998 May;4(3):247-64
references.pmid: 9623000
references.citation: Neurology. 1985 Dec;35(12):1731-41
references.pmid: 4069365
references.citation: Arch Clin Neuropsychol. 2007 May;22(4):501-11
references.pmid: 17336035
references.citation: Am J Occup Ther. 2008 Sep-Oct;62(5):528-37
references.pmid: 18826013
references.citation: Brain. 1991 Apr;114 ( Pt 2):727-41
references.pmid: 2043945
references.citation: Psychol Aging. 2011 Jun;26(2):260-268
references.pmid: 21401262
references.citation: J Clin Exp Neuropsychol. 2012;34(7):724-37
references.pmid: 22506736
references.citation: Neuropsychologia. 2000;38(6):848-63
references.pmid: 10689059
references.citation: Neurology. 1993 Nov;43(11):2412-4
references.pmid: 8232972