Can older adults be trained to be beTter at muLtitasking?
There is much evidence that brain plasticity occurs in adulthood (e.g. May 2011) and therefore that older adults may become better at multitasking.
Bherer, Kramer and Peterson (2008) found that although adults in their early 70s were slower at divided attention tasks than 20-year olds, they improved with practice. They never caught up in speed, they overtook the young adults in accuracy. Carriere et al. (2010) note a general tendency in cognitive tasks for older people to slow down and become more careful.
Hartley and Little (1999) felt that older adults' difficulties in multitasking were not due to reduced attentional capacity but to slower task switching and more interference. However some studies suggest that younger adults have an ability to multitask which older adults do not. Two separate studies found that after practice performing two activities at once, younger participants developed parallel processing strategies while the older adults seemed cognitively inflexible (Göthe, Oberauer and Kliegl 2007, Maquestiaux et al. 2010).
Anguera et al. (2013) found that multitasking ability declines linearly with age, but videogame training produced persistent gains in attentional control which raised 60-85 year-olds to the same multitasking level as 20 year-olds.
Bherer, Kramer and Peterson (2008) found that although adults in their early 70s were slower at divided attention tasks than 20-year olds, they improved with practice. They never caught up in speed, they overtook the young adults in accuracy. Carriere et al. (2010) note a general tendency in cognitive tasks for older people to slow down and become more careful.
Hartley and Little (1999) felt that older adults' difficulties in multitasking were not due to reduced attentional capacity but to slower task switching and more interference. However some studies suggest that younger adults have an ability to multitask which older adults do not. Two separate studies found that after practice performing two activities at once, younger participants developed parallel processing strategies while the older adults seemed cognitively inflexible (Göthe, Oberauer and Kliegl 2007, Maquestiaux et al. 2010).
Anguera et al. (2013) found that multitasking ability declines linearly with age, but videogame training produced persistent gains in attentional control which raised 60-85 year-olds to the same multitasking level as 20 year-olds.
Basak et al. (2008) trained 70-year olds for 14 hours in a strategy videogame and found they improved in many cognitive skills such as attentional control and task switching. In contrast Boot at al (2008) found no improvement after 20 hours of videogame training. Lee et al (2012) found the effect on the brain depended on the aim of participants and their approach to the videogame. Dobrowolski et al. (2015) suggest it depends on the type of game.
These studies suggest that multitasking ability declines with age, independent of technology use, however videogaming does have the potential to improve attention, an effect which can be seen in older as well as younger adults. Practice at tasks causes changes in the brain, as is also seen in literacy and websearching, whenever in the lifespan they are learnt (Ostrosky-Solís, García and Pérez 2004, Boltzmann & Rüsseler 2013, Small et al. 2009).
These studies suggest that multitasking ability declines with age, independent of technology use, however videogaming does have the potential to improve attention, an effect which can be seen in older as well as younger adults. Practice at tasks causes changes in the brain, as is also seen in literacy and websearching, whenever in the lifespan they are learnt (Ostrosky-Solís, García and Pérez 2004, Boltzmann & Rüsseler 2013, Small et al. 2009).