Age-related performance in a multiple-task environment

Younger and older adult participants performed a dynamic multiple-task requ iring concurrent processing of 4 independent tasks. Component-task performa nce emphasis (i.e., task priorities) was biased by differential point alloc ations across task components. After training, the point structure was modi fied. Older adults exhibited larger multiple-task performance deficits comp ared with younger adults; however the age-related gap in multiple-task perf ormance decreased with practice. The age-related performance difference inc reased again when task emphasis was changed, but not when demands were chan ged. Consistent with the training data, the age-related differences diminis hed again with additional experience on this new task-component emphasis. T he data suggest that higher-order; strategic processing may be an important source of age-related differences in complex multiple-task performance. Ac tual or potential applications of this research include the facilitation of techniques for age-related comprehensive usability testing for products of even moderate complexity.