Leah Gano

Presentation Title

Integrating bodily action into attention and working memory frameworks  

Abstract

In everyday life, humans rely on the integrated action of the body and cognition to perform their daily tasks. Current models of human cognition used to explain performance in these real-world tasks are largely based on traditional computer-based tasks which place limited demands on the action of the body. It remains unclear whether cognitive abilities demonstrated in traditional computer-based tasks are associated with performance on integrated action-cognition tasks. Here, we examined correlations between performance on computer-based tasks and integrated action-cognition tasks that measured attention and working memory. Subjects completed all tasks in a counterbalanced order. For the computer-based tasks, subjects were seated and responded using their fingers on a keyboard. For the action-cognition tasks, subjects stood and responded using either both hands and feet (cueing task) or using one hand (n-back). Both task types replicated the classic behavioral patterns typically reported in the literature. However, the correlations between the cueing effects and the VWM load effects across task type were not significant. Together, these findings highlight a potential disconnect between traditional cognitive measures and performance in action-based contexts.