Department of Psychology, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington 99164-4820, USA.
Neuropsychology. 2012 Sep;26(5):631-41. doi: 10.1037/a0029352. Epub 2012 Jul 30.
The day-out task (DOT), a naturalistic task that requires multitasking in a real-world setting, was used to examine everyday functioning in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
Thirty-eight participants with MCI and 38 cognitively healthy older adult controls prioritized, organized, initiated, and completed a number of subtasks in a campus apartment to prepare for a day out (e.g., determine and gather change for bus, bring a magazine). Participants also completed tests assessing cognitive constructs important in multitasking (i.e., retrospective memory, prospective memory, planning).
As compared with controls, the MCI group required more time to complete the DOT and demonstrated poorer task accuracy, performing more subtasks incompletely and inaccurately. Despite poorer DOT task accuracy, the MCI and control groups approached completion of the DOT in a similar manner. For the MCI group, retrospective memory was a unique predictor of the number of subtasks left incomplete and inaccurate, while prospective memory was a unique predictor of DOT sequencing. The DOT measures, but not the cognitive tests, were predictive of knowledgeable informant report of everyday functioning.
THESE findings suggest that difficulty remembering and keeping track of multiple goals and subgoals may contribute to the poorer performance of individuals with MCI in complex everyday situations.
日间任务（DOT）是一项需要在现实环境中进行多任务处理的自然任务，用于检查轻度认知障碍（MCI）个体的日常功能。
38 名 MCI 患者和 38 名认知健康的老年对照组在校园公寓中优先安排、组织、启动和完成多项子任务，为外出一天做准备（例如，确定并收集公共汽车车费，带一本杂志）。参与者还完成了评估多任务处理中重要认知结构的测试（即回溯记忆、前瞻记忆、计划）。
与对照组相比，MCI 组完成 DOT 需要更多的时间，并且表现出较差的任务准确性，完成的子任务不完整且不准确。尽管 DOT 任务的准确性较差，但 MCI 和对照组以相似的方式接近 DOT 的完成。对于 MCI 组，回溯记忆是未完成和不准确的子任务数量的唯一预测指标，而前瞻记忆是 DOT 排序的唯一预测指标。DOT 测量值，而不是认知测试，可预测有知识的知情者对日常功能的报告。
这些发现表明，难以记住和跟踪多个目标和子目标可能导致 MCI 个体在复杂的日常情况下表现较差。
