A mechanism underlying improved dual-task performance after practice : reviewing evidence for the memory hypothesis

Abstract

Extensive practice can significantly reduce dual-task costs (i.e., impaired performance under dual-task conditions compared with single-task conditions) and, thus, improve dual-task performance. Among others, these practice effects are attributed to an optimization of executive function skills that are necessary for coordinating tasks that overlap in time. In detail, this optimization of dual-task coordination skills is associated with the efficient instantiation of component task information in working memory at the onset of a dual-task trial. In the present paper, we review empirical findings on three critical predictions of this memory hypothesis. These predictions concern (1) the preconditions for the acquisition and transfer of coordination skills due to practice, (2) the role of task complexity and difficulty, and (3) the impact of age-related decline in working memory capacity on dual-task optimization.