Strategic Variations in Fitts' Task: Comparison of Healthy Older Adults and Cognitively Impaired Patients.
The present study aimed at investigating how healthy older adults (HOA) and cognitively impaired patients (CIP) differ in a discrete Fitts' aiming task. Four levels of task difficulty were used, resulting from the simultaneous manipulation of the size of the target and its distance from home position. We found that movement times (MTs) followed Fitts' law in both HOA and CIP, with the latter being significantly slower and more affected by increased task difficulty. Moreover, correlation analyses suggest that lower information processing speed (IPS) and deficits in executive functions (EFs) are associated with decline of sensorimotor performance in Fitts' task. Analyses of strategic variations showed that HOA and CIP differed in strategy repertoire (which strategies they used), strategy distribution (i.e., how often they used each available strategy), and strategy execution (i.e., how quick they were with each available strategy). These findings further our understanding of how strategic variations used in a sensorimotor task are affected by cognitive impairment in older adults.
Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (LPC), Aix-Marseille Université, CNRSMarseille, France; Institut des Sciences du Mouvement (ISM), Aix-Marseille Université, CNRSMarseille, France.
Céline
C
Poletti
Institut des Sciences du Mouvement (ISM), Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS Marseille, France.
Rita
R
Sleimen-Malkoun
Unité COMETE, Université de Caen Normandie, INSERM Caen, France.
Leslie Marion
LM
Decker
Centre Gérontologique Départemental Marseille, France.
Frédérique
F
Retornaz
Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (LPC), Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS Marseille, France.
Patrick
P
Lemaire
Institut des Sciences du Mouvement (ISM), Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS Marseille, France.
Jean-Jacques
JJ
Temprado
Fitts’ task; aging; cognitive declines; executive functions; information processing speed; sensorimotor strategies