Kognition und Motorik (Comode 3)

Kontakt:   Dr. Emily Meachon

Beteiligte Personen:
Prof. Dr. Alexander Grob
Dr. Emily Meachon
M.Sc. Agnes-Maria Detert

"To move is to progress - literally and figuratively" (Zimmer, 2011). This view goes back to the earliest theories of development, which emphasize a close link between motor skills and cognition (Piaget, 1952). While developmental psychologists have long been hesitant to investigate the link between motor development and cognition, there has been a recent increase in research on this topic (e.g., Adolph & Robinson, 2013). This supports early and targeted intervention for children and adolescents at risk in motor and/or cognitive domains. Moreover, these research findings are especially significant today, with an increase sedentary lifestyle and many children and adolescents lack sufficient physical activity (Manz et al., 2014). 

Therefore, we assess walking behaviors (via GAITRite®) while children and adults simultaneously complete cognitive tasks (i.e., executive functions), in order to study the dual- task cost effects on multiple levels of performance. All the while, we record electroencephalography (EEG) throughout their performance on these tasks. As such, we can compare performance on several levels, including motor and cognitive behavior as well as neural activity related to these behaviors. Numerous standardized test procedures (e.g., motor or intelligence tests) are also used. The results of this study advance theory in the domain of cognitive and motor development across the first few decades of life, and are useful in order to support targeted intervention in these domains at an early stage in life.

This project was started in 2013, with new phases added over time. Most recently, we included the layer of EEG measurement in our third version of the study "CoMoDe-3." Since 2022, we have recruited adults for several forms of the study, and in 2024 we plan to recruit adults who have various neurodevelopmental disorders and/or disorders of movement (i.e., Developmental Coordination Disorder; Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) to compare to the existing typically-developed groups. We also expect to recruit and test children in late 2024 to early 2025. Therefore, there are many exciting directions and learning opportunities for a master's thesis

Feel free to contact emily.meachon@clutterunibas.ch if you are interested in participating in our studies or if you have any questions about the project.