A cross-sectional analysis on the effects of age on dual tasking in typically developing children.
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| Abstract |    :  
                  Dual tasking is an integral part of everyday activities for children. Therefore, as with the other aspects of child development-motor, cognitive, perceptual, psychological, and behavioral-it is important to understand the maturation process of dual-tasking skills in children. Characterizing age-related changes in children's dual-task performance has been problematic, because differences in dual-tasking ability are confounded by age differences in abilities in the relevant single-task performances. The effect of age on dual-tasking ability was examined in 221 typically developing children aged 5-8 years using two motor-cognitive dual-task paradigms: walking while performing an n-back cognitive task, and drawing a trail while performing an n-back cognitive task. The test-retest reliability of the dual-task paradigm was examined by re-assessing 50 participants after 1 month. Individual differences in single-task performance were controlled for, so that any age differences in dual-task costs could not be attributed to differences in single-task performance. There were no age-related differences in dual-task cost of any task (p > 0.05). However, the dual-task cost of trail-making was significantly greater than the dual-task cost of walking when performed under similar cognitive loads (p < 0.0001). The intra-class correlation coefficient ranged from 0.71 to 0.92 for all dual-task performances. The results suggest that previously reported age differences in dual-task costs in young children may have been driven by developmental differences in single-task ability, and that general task coordination ability is comparable in children 5-8 years of age.  | 
        
| Year of Publication |    :  
                  2019 
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| Journal |    :  
                  Psychological research 
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| Volume |    :  
                  83 
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| Issue |    :  
                  1 
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| Number of Pages |    :  
                  104-115 
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| ISSN Number |    :  
                  0340-0727 
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| URL |    :  
                  https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00426-018-1126-0 
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| DOI |    :  
                  10.1007/s00426-018-1126-0 
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| Short Title |    :  
                  Psychol Res 
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