The Effects of Divided Attention on Speech Motor, Verbal Fluency and Manual Motor Task Performance

Research in dual task performance varies widely in its methodology and results. The present study employed three different types of activity to provide insights into the interference that occurs in dual task performance. Twenty young adults completed a speech task (repeating a sentence), a verbal fluency task (listing words beginning with the same letter), and right- and left-handed motor tasks (placing pegs and washers in a peg board) in isolation and in concurrent conditions. Speech kinematic data revealed that during concurrent performance of manual tasks, lip displacement and peak velocity decreased, while sound pressure level and spatiotemporal variability increased. The impact of manual motor performance on speech differed between the right and left hand. Manual motor scores significantly decreased when concurrently performed with the verbal fluency task. Also, verbal fluency results declined when performed concurrently with left-handed manual motor task. These findings suggest that cortical localization of control may be more complex than is predicted by the functional distance hypothesis.

Name thesis:degree_name

MS

Grantor dc:publisher

Brigham Young University - Provo

Author dc:creator

• Hamblin, Erin

• concurrent task
• dual task
• speech motor
• verbal fluency
• manual motor
• Communication Sciences and Disorders

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/547

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarsarchive.byu.edu:etd-1546