Effects of initial planning on task execution performance of older adults: A naturalistic assessment paradigm

ABSTRACT

Objective: Planning, a higher order executive functioning ability important for accomplishing complex everyday tasks, can be differentiated into initial and concurrent (online) planning. In this study, initial plans were codified to assess their impact on task execution. Cognitive correlates of initial planning and task execution were also examined.

Method: One-hundred fifty-four community dwelling older adults completed a naturalistic task, called the Day Out Task (DOT), in either a planning or no planning condition. The DOT required participants to multitask and efficiently complete a series of eight subtasks, preparing for a hypothetical day out. Participants also completed a neuropsychological battery with the following cognitive constructs assessed: processing speed, cognitive flexibility, episodic memory, visuoconstructional abilities, and working memory and sequencing.

Results: There were no significant differences between the planning and no planning conditions in DOT execution accuracy, efficiency or duration. However, efficiency of the initial plan was a significant predictor of task execution efficiency and initial plans that contained a higher amount of Task Relevant Associations predicted a shorter duration of task execution after controlling for age, processing speed and episodic memory. Furthermore, initial plans that had more Task Relevant Associations and task executions that took less time were associated with better working memory and sequencing ability.

Discussion: Quality of the initial plan is important. Initial plans that organize task objectives in an efficient manner may lead to better task execution efficiency, while initial plans that demonstrate a detailed understanding of individual relational aspects of the tasks (i.e., higher rate of Task Relevant Associations) may result in faster task execution.

KEYWORDS:

• Planning
• initial
• concurrent
• naturalistic assessment
• aging

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the members of the Neuropsychology and Aging lab for their help with collecting and scoring the data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was partially supported by NIBIB under Grant >R01 EB009675; NIA under Grant >R25 AG046114; and US Department of Education Grant #P200A150115;National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering [>R01 EB009675].