University of Twente Student Theses
Differences Between Younger and Older Adults in Whole Body Step Motor Sequence Learning
Jansen, Dominique (2023) Differences Between Younger and Older Adults in Whole Body Step Motor Sequence Learning.
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| Abstract: | Motor Sequence Learning (MSL) underlies many of our daily activities. When researched, however, keypress and minor movements are usually examined, which gives insight into underlying processes but can lack the complexity of full-body movements that are crucial to everyday functioning. Few studies have examined this aspect in the older population where physical and cognitive limitations can start to occur which can affect the learning and maintenance of motor sequences. Knowing how older adults differ from young adults in this area can give insight into underlying mechanisms of MSL with regard to ageing that could benefit learning and rehabilitation programs. We piloted the Dance-Step Discrete Sequence Production (DS-DSP) task within the elderly population and examined the differences between motor sequence learning and movement preparation between younger and older adults using both behavioural and kinematical data through motion capture. Five older adults (age = 62.4 ± 3.58, 4 females, 100% right-footed) took part in the study and practised 144 sequences over 6 Blocks. Data from five younger adults from a previous cohort were used for comparison. Results showed that older and younger adults learn differently as their learning slopes differ. Accuracy performance is worse for older adults but reaches a similar accuracy level with practice. No chunking occurred for either group, however, young adults seem to perform the entire sequence as a chunk. For older adults, no chunking occurred although a switch towards the chunking strategy seemed to occur at the 5th Block. Finally, data related to Center of Mass (CoM) acceleration showed that young adults accelerated/decelerated faster than older adults in the block after a break, which may have been due to the exploration of a faster sequence execution that could eliminatethe concatenation point they had previously utilized. Further studies should examine this further and adjust study duration for optimal learning. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 77 psychology |
| Programme: | Psychology MSc (66604) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/96859 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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