Memorizing while walking: Increase in dual-task costs from young adulthoodto old age

The dual task of memorizing word lists while walking was predicted to becom e more difficult with age because balance and gait are in greater need of " attentional resources." Forty-seven young (ages 20-30 years), 45 middle-age d (40-50), and 48 old (60-70) adults were trained to criterion in a mnemoni c technique and instructed to walk quickly and accurately on 2 narrow track s of different path complexity. Then, participants encoded the word lists w hile sitting, standing, or walking on either track; likewise, speed and acc uracy of walking performance were assessed with and without concurrent memo ry encoding. Dual-task costs increased with age in both domains; relative t o young adults, the effect size of the overall increase was 0.98 standard d eviation units for middle-aged and 1.47 standard deviation units for old ad ults. It is argued that sensory and motor aspects of behavior are increasin gly in need of cognitive control with advancing age.