ABSTRACT

Having a realistic perception of one’s motor abilities is important for successful aging. We used two different motor tasks, carrying a tray with cube-towers (study 1; n = 20 young adults; n = 20 older adults), and stepping over a crossbar (study 2; n = 23 young adults; n = 21 older adults), to investigate how physical risk influences task-difficulty choices. We also investigated the effect of wearing an age simulation suit on young adults. For the tray-carrying task, older adults were more risk-tolerant in their task-difficulty choices. When stepping over the crossbar, older adults left a larger “safety-buffer” than young adults. When wearing the age suit, young adults adopted a more careful strategy in the stepping task. We conclude that healthy older adults flexibly adjust their strategies to postural risks, and that young adults’ strategy-choices can be influenced by experimentally inducing some of the sensory-motor constraints of old age.

摘要

对一个人的运动能力有一个现实的认识对于成功老龄化很重要。我们使用了两种不同的运动任务，携带一个带有立方体塔的托盘（研究 1；n = 20 名年轻人；n = 20 名老年人），以及跨过横杆（研究 2；n = 23 名年轻人；n = 21 名老年人）成人），以调查身体风险如何影响任务难度的选择。我们还调查了穿着年龄模拟服对年轻人的影响。对于托盘搬运任务，老年人在选择任务难度时更能承受风险。跨过横梁时，老年人比年轻人留下更大的“安全缓冲区”。穿着年龄套装时，年轻人在踏步任务中采取了更加谨慎的策略。我们得出结论，健康的老年人会灵活地调整他们的策略以应对姿势风险，