Chapter 1. Old Age: Thinking and Moving at the Same Time

Short Description

This video examines whether the aging process changes the way people allocate their mental resources. In a study conducted in Berlin, adults over the age of 60 navigate an obstacle course while memorizing a list of words they hear through headphones. Lines on the track and handrail assess how steadily research participants walk.

Long Description

This video examines whether the aging process changes the way people allocate their mental resources. In a study conducted in Berlin, adults over the age of 60 navigate an obstacle course while memorizing a list of words they hear through headphones. Lines on the track and handrail assess how steadily research participants walk. After they complete the course, volunteers must remember the words in the order in which they heard them. Researcher Paul Baltes describes how he the conceived the design of the study. Observing older people walking up a hill in the Swiss Alps, he noticed they stopped conversing when they approached rocks on the path. They started talking again once they had successfully navigated around the obstacles. When we are young, Baltes reasoned, our physical movements are automatic. However, as we age these same movements require more cognitive support. In his laboratory study, Baltes compares the volunteers' ability to walk and memorize simultaneously with their ability to simply memorize. When they are walking, older people have much greater difficulty remembering the words. When they are only memorizing, and thus have nothing to distract them, their recall is almost perfect. Younger adults easily perform both tasks at the same time. If older people want to optimize walking, suggests Baltes, they need to allocate their mental resources to walking. On the other hand, if they want to memorize, they need to allocate their resources to memorization. The worst strategy, he concludes, is to switch back and forth. In that case, neither activity will be performed well.

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