Nejati V, Garusi Farshi M T, Ashayeri H, Aghdasi M T
Department of Neuroscience, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Science, Tehran, Iran.
Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2008 Aug;23(8):801-4. doi: 10.1002/gps.1976.
Motor sequence is the focus of too much of human's intelligent behavior. It is well-known that such sequential skills involve chaining a number of primitive actions together. Cognitive aging is the part of aging that causes decreased cognitive ability of the elderly such as learning. The aim of this research was evaluation of the attention-based demand for implicit sequence learning in youth and elderly.
In the first phase of research we designed software for the serial reaction time task. This software registered errors and Response Time (RT) in response to sequential stimulus. We have compared youth (n = 15) and elderly (n = 15) in two groups. Tasks were defined in 10 blocks, the first and the sixth block were random and the other blocks were sequential. ANOVA was used to compare response times and errors in different blocks, paired t-tests were used to compare regular and irregular blocks and independent t-tests were used to compare youth and elderly.
Results showed that RT and error decrease only in youth in regular and irregular blocks. Odd ball tasks performance did not have any significant difference.
Implicit learning in the elderly is affected by attention. Therapists should not use cognitive tasks for overloading during motor learning in rehabilitation and exercise therapy of older adults.
运动序列是人类诸多智能行为的核心。众所周知，此类序列技能涉及将一系列原始动作串联起来。认知老化是衰老过程中导致老年人认知能力下降（如学习能力）的部分。本研究的目的是评估青年人和老年人在基于注意力的内隐序列学习方面的需求。
在研究的第一阶段，我们设计了用于序列反应时任务的软件。该软件记录对序列刺激的错误和反应时间（RT）。我们将两组人员进行了比较，青年组（n = 15）和老年组（n = 15）。任务分为10个组块，第一个和第六个组块是随机的，其他组块是序列的。使用方差分析来比较不同组块中的反应时间和错误，使用配对t检验来比较规则和不规则组块，使用独立t检验来比较青年人和老年人。
结果表明，仅青年组在规则和不规则组块中的反应时间和错误有所减少。异常球任务的表现没有任何显著差异。
老年人的内隐学习受到注意力的影响。在老年人的康复和运动治疗中，治疗师在运动学习过程中不应使用认知任务使其负担过重。
