Fraizer, Elaine Vida (2006) Postural costs of performing cognitive tasks in non-coincident reference frames. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

An extensive literature exists attesting to the limited-capacity performance of
everyday tasks, such as looking and mental manipulation. Only relatively recently
has empirical interest turned towards the capacity limitations of the body
coordinations (such as posture control) that provide the physical substrate for
cognitive operations (and so mandatorily coexist with cognition). What are the
capacity implications for the body’s safety and mobility, for example, in
accommodating the need to stabilize the eye-head apparatus for looking, or when
mentally manipulating objects in 3-D space? Specifically, what are the postural
costs in having to position and orientate the body in its own task space while
supporting spatial operations in cognitive task space? What are the performance
implications, in turn, for everyday cognitive tasks when posture control is
challenged in this way? The purpose of this thesis was to establish a theoretical and
methodological basis for examining any postural costs that may arise from the
sharing or partitioning of spatial reference frames between these two components (a
frame co-registration cost hypothesis).
In 7 experiments, young adults performed either conjunction visual search or mental
rotation tasks (cognitive component) while standing upright (postural component).
Visual search probed cognitive operations in extrapersonal space and mental
rotation probed operations in representational space. Immersive visualization was
used to operationalise postural and cognitive task contexts, by arranging for the two
tasks (under varying postural and cognitive task-load conditions) to be carried out
with respect to two spatial reference frames that were either coincident or noncoincident
with each other. Aside from the expected performance trade-offs due to
task-load manipulations, non-coincidence of reference frames was found to
significantly add to postural costs for cognitive operations in extrapersonal space
(visual search) and for representational space (mental rotation).
These results demonstrate that the maintenance of multiple task-spaces can be a
source of interference in posture-cognition dual-tasking. Such interference may
arise, it is suggested, from the dynamics of time-sharing between underlying spatial
coordinations required for these tasks. Beyond its importance within embodied
cognition research, this work may have theoretical and methodological relevance to
the study of posture-cognition in the elderly, and to the study of balance and
coordination problems in learning difficulties such as those encountered in dyslexia
and the autistic spectrum.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Spatial behavior, Posture, Cognition, Visual perception, Motor ability
Official Date:	July 2006
Dates:	Date Event July 2006 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Psychology
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Mitra, Subhobrata; Watson, Derrick G.
Sponsors:	Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC); Warwick Postgraduate Research Fellowship
Extent:	xii, 211, [30] leaves.
Language:	eng

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