The interplay between posture control and memory for spatial locations

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Authors

Three experiments examined interactions between posture control in upright stance and a concurrent location memory task. Healthy young participants stood upright and memorized the locations of dots presented on a computer screen. In the retrieval phase, they indicated whether arrows presented on the screen would pass through any of the memorized locations. Postural sway variability was measured either during the retention period or during retrieval. Relative to not performing the memory task, postural sway variability increased in the retention period when the eyes were closed, but remained unaffected when the eyes were open. During retrieval, postural sway variability was reduced relative to the no-memory-task condition. Results were interpreted in terms of dual-task costs associated with maintaining multiple frames of reference.

Original languageEnglish
JournalExperimental Brain Research
Volume217
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)43-52
Number of pages10
ISSN0014-4819
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.03.2012
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • Psychology - Dual-tasking, Posture control, Reference frames, Spatial memory