Abstract

The present study examined the ability of younger and older adults to prioritize one task over another under divided attention conditions. The speech task involved the repetition of sentences that included specific vowel targets, and the non-speech task was a visuomotor pursuit rotor task which required tracking a moving target on a computer. The participants were twenty young adults between the ages of 18 and 30 and twenty older adults above the age of 60. They performed each task on its own and both tasks concurrently, prioritizing one or the other task. Audio recordings were analyzed with software to extract formant measures from the mid-point of the corner vowels. The speech measures included vowel space area (VSA) and vowel articulation index (VAI), which indirectly reflect articulatory excursions. The pursuit rotor task measures included time on target (TOT) and mean deviation from the target (MeanDev). Statistical analysis revealed that task priority condition significantly affected both the speech and pursuit rotor measures. Older age significantly negatively affected pursuit rotor performance in all conditions. There were also significant age and gender effects in participants' self-perception of their performance. The results expand what is known about task prioritization during speech as well as the influence of age during divided attention tasks.

Degree

College and Department

David O. McKay School of Education; Communication Disorders

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/