The Effect of Mental Fatigue and Gender on Working Memory Performance during Repeated Practice by Young and Older Adults

Autor: Valentina Pergher, Nele Vanbilsen, Marc Van Hulle
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Neural Plasticity, Vol 2021 (2021)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2090-5904
1687-5443
DOI: 10.1155/2021/6612805
Popis: Working memory (WM) is one of the most investigated cognitive functions albeit the extent to which individual characteristics impact on performance is still unclear, especially when older adults are involved. The present study considers repeated practice of a visual N-Back task with three difficulty levels (1-, 2-, and 3-Back) in healthy young and older individuals. Our results reveal that, for both age groups, the expected mental fatigue was countered by a learning effect, in terms of accuracies and reaction times, which turned out to benefit females more than males, for all three N-Back levels. We conclude that future WM studies, in particular when relying on repeated N-Back sessions, should account for learning effects in relation to mental fatigue and gender, in both young and older adults.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals
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