Leah Gano¹, Barry Giesbrecht¹; ¹University of California Santa Barbara

Performance in everyday tasks requires the integrated functioning of action and cognitive systems. Tasks combining physical activity with cognitive demands improve cognitive functioning more than physical activity alone (Anderson-Hanley et al., 2012; Barcelos et al., 2015). It remains unclear whether cognitive abilities demonstrated in integrated action-cognition tasks are associated with performance on traditional computer-based assessments. We examined correlations between performance on two computer-based visual cognition tasks, the Attentional Networks Task (ANT) and a visual working memory change detection task; and two integrated action-cognition tasks, a modified spatial cueing task and an n-back task. Subjects (n=39) completed all tasks in a counterbalanced order. For the computer-based tasks, subjects were seated and responded using their fingers on a keyboard. For the action-cognition tasks, subjects stood and responded using either both hands and feet (cueing task) or using one hand (n-back). Both types of tasks replicated the classic behavioral patterns typically reported in the literature. In the ANT, RTs were faster for cued vs. uncued locations (t(38)=8.22, p<.001). In the change detection task, accuracy declined with increasing set size (F(2,76)=177.45. p<.001). In the action-cognition tasks, RTs were faster for cued vs. uncued target locations (t(38)=-11.95, p<.001) and accuracy declined as “n” increased (t(38)=14.44, p<.001). Correlations between the tasks revealed an association between uncued RTs in the ANT and cueing task (r(37)=.35, p=.030). Exploratory analyses revealed that this correlation was driven primarily by hand responses, not foot responses. The correlations between the cueing effects and the working memory load effects across task type were not significant. These findings suggest that the association between computer-based tasks and integrated action-cognition tasks emerges only under specific cognitive and motor response conditions, indicating limited transfer across modalities.

Acknowledgements: Research was sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Office and accomplished under cooperative agreement W911NF-19-2-0026 for the Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies.