Abstract

BASTOS, Flávio H.; FREUDENHEIM, Andrea M.  and  SANTOS, Suely dos. Effect of practice on elderly’s people motor action planning . Rev. Port. Cien. Desp. [online]. 2007, vol.7, n.1, pp.116-123. ISSN 1645-0523.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of practice on elderly´s people motor action planning. Twenty-one elderly aged between 70 and 78 years participated in the study. The task was to insert a rod with a semicircular end in a case hole. The elderly made, respectively, 40, 20 and 20 trials on acquisition, transfer and retention phases. In the acquisition phase, the rod was positioned with its end to the left side and in transfer and retention phases, to the right side. The moment at which the bar was correctly oriented (prehension, transport and/or insertion) and the time spent on the task were considered, respectively, as planning quality and performance measures. As learning progress (acquisition/ transfer/retention), planning quality level was maintained and performance worsened. Planning improved along transfer phase and performance improved along the three experimental phases (p<0,05) due to practice. It may be concluded that: elderly people’s ability to plan is not task specific; when facing perturbation, this age group tends to exchange speed for planning and that perturbation (task modification) prior to practice leads to planning quality improvement.

Keywords : elderly; motor action planning; motor learning.

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