The Influence of Obstacle Avoidance on Working Memory Performance whilst Conducting Load Carriage Activity

Objective To quantify the effect of obstacle avoidance on cognitive performance during treadmill-based load carriage activity.Background Understanding the interaction between physical work and cognition during representative occupational tasks is a topic of high interest, particularly given the increasing cognitive demands being placed on personnel within these roles.Method Fourteen male participants (age: 29±9yrs; stature: 1.85±0.08m; body mass: 79±21kg; estimated body fat: 17±4%) attended the laboratory on two separate occasions to conduct the Fast Load Carriage Protocol (FLCP) under two conditions: a control condition (CON) and an obstacle avoidance condition (OBS). During the FLCP, participants completed a modified auditory n-back task every 10 minutes and were concurrently required to avoid obstacles in the OBS condition.Results When corrected for movement speed, participants on average failed to avoid between 5.3% and 8.1% of obstacles over the 210s period. Concurrently, during the OBS condition, a reduction in working memory performance of 7.0-15.1% was observed across the FLCP (p < 0.001, ω² = 0.207). On average, the OBS condition elicited greater Rating Scale of Mental Effort scores than the CON condition (p=0.019, ω2 = 0.155).Conclusion We have demonstrated how dual-tasking can lead to significant and less favourable changes in performance parameters (decreased auditory working memory performance, obstacles hit, increase in mental effort, and likely increase in physical workrate).Application We encourage researchers and practitioners to consider representative design when translating research to practice. Personnel within physically demanding occupations should consider ways to minimise dual-tasking within their roles or mitigation strategies to maintain cognitive performance.