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A Comparative Study on middle age and older adult’s implicit learning in serial reaction time task. PTJ 2012; 2 (1) :9-16
URL: http://ptj.uswr.ac.ir/article-1-34-en.html

Introduction: Acquisition motor skill training in older adults are great importance. The main purpose of this study was to compare middle age and older adult’s implicit learning in serial reaction time task. Methods: A serial reaction time task by using software was applied for studying motor learning in 30 older and 30 middle age adults. In this task 4 squares with different colors appeared on the monitor and subjects were asked to press its defined key immediately after observing it. Subjects practiced 8 motor blocks (4 repeated blocks, then 2 random blocks and finally 2 repeated blocks) in 10 sequences for each block. Subjects were not provided with any explanation about the sequence of squares Block time that was dependent variable measured and Independent-samples t test and Repeated Measures ANOVA was used in this test. All subjects were right handed and no history of neurologic disease or musculoskeletal dysfunction. Results: middle age groups performed significantly faster than the older adults (P<0.05). Block time differences of second block with eight and tenth blocks (two next days) were significant and similar in both groups. Conclusion: Although performance level was significantly better for middle age than older group, learning and performance improvement that was significantly higher in older group and learning is relatively unaffected by age.