Lost in thought: working memory load disrupts visual control of locomotion

Abstract: Previous research demonstrates impaired motor performance when walking with concurrent working memory tasks. Immerging evidence also indicates that walking under dual-task conditions leads to gaze being averted from the walking path, although, such impacts are relatively under investigated. Therefore, the reported series of experiments sought to further investigate whether such gaze aversion may be a potential contributor to cognitive-motor interference when walking. Experimental tasks involved walking on a figure-of-eight walkway with a concurrent working memory task (Experiment 1), navigating the same walkway while switching between two cognitive tasks (Experiment 2), and the more complex motor task of using an escalator while performing a working memory task (Experiment 3). Experiment 1 demonstrated reduced walking speed and increase gaze aversion under dual-task conditions. Experiment 2 showed increased gaze aversion when switching between the two cognitive tasks. Experiment 3 showed that when the motor task required greater spatial and temporal precision, gaze aversion from the walking path did not occur and vision was prioritised at the expense of performance of the working memory task. These experiments demonstrate that interference between working memory and vision is a plausible causal contributor to cognitive-motor interference, and cross-domain task demands are a determining factor in the balance between automated and executive control of locomotion.