title: Building a framework for a dual task taxonomy.
abstract: The study of dual task interference has gained increasing attention in the literature for the past 35 years, with six MEDLINE citations in 1979 growing to 351 citations indexed in 2014 and a peak of 454 cited papers in 2013. Increasingly, researchers are examining dual task cost in individuals with pathology, including those with neurodegenerative diseases. While the influence of these papers has extended from the laboratory to the clinic, the field has evolved without clear definitions of commonly used terms and with extreme variations in experimental procedures. As a result, it is difficult to examine the interference literature as a single body of work. In this paper we present a new taxonomy for classifying cognitive-motor and motor-motor interference within the study of dual task behaviors that connects traditional concepts of learning and principles of motor control with current issues of multitasking analysis. As a first step in the process we provide an operational definition of dual task, distinguishing it from a complex single task. We present this new taxonomy, inclusive of both cognitive and motor modalities, as a working model; one that we hope will generate discussion and create a framework from which one can view previous studies and develop questions of interest.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy, Arizona School of Health Sciences, A.T. Still University, Mesa, AZ 85206, USA.
authors.forename: Tara L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: McIsaac
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy, School of Health Technology and Management, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.
authors.forename: Eric M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Lamberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy, School of Health Technology and Management, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.
authors.forename: Lisa M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Muratori
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000145:classification* / Q000502:physiology; D002965:Classification; D003071:Cognition / Q000145:classification* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000145:classification* / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000145:classification* / Q000502:physiology