Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, Vol 51, Issue 3 P143-P154, Copyright © 1996 by The Gerontological Society of America
Age differences in postural stability are increased by additional cognitive demands
EA Maylor and AM Wing
MRC Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge, United Kingdom. Elizabeth.Maylor@warwick.ac.uk
We report an investigation of postural stability in two groups of
volunteers (mean ages of 57 and 77). Participants were required to stand on
a force platform while performing five cognitive tasks: (1) random digit
generation, (2) Brooks' spatial memory, (3) backward digit recall, (4)
silently counting from 1-100, and (5) counting backward in threes (aloud).
There was also a control condition in which there was no cognitive task.
Postural stability was adversely affected by age in all conditions.
Moreover, the difference between the two age groups was significantly
greater when performing tasks 2 and 3, in comparison with the age
difference in the control condition. Regression analyses revealed that the
effect of age on postural stability while performing these particular tasks
remained significant even after the following measures were included in the
regression: postural stability in the control condition, cognitive
performance, intelligence, and speed. We suggest that age differences in
postural stability are increased by cognitive tasks requiring use of the
visuo-spatial sketchpad component of working memory.
