Swimming as a Positive Moderator of Cognitive Aging: A Cross-Sectional Study with a Multitask Approach
Table 3
Results of the MANCOVAs, ANCOVAs, and effect-sizes contrasting young and older participants on cognitive performance, with level of education as covariate, and mean behavioral performance for each age group (SD).
Cognitive functions
Cognitive tasks
Dependent variables
MANCOVA
ddl
Wilk’s
Partial
ANCOVA F(1,44)
Cohen’s d
Young adults M (SD)
Older adults M (SD)
Auditory simple reaction time task
Reaction time (ms)
23.06 (P < .0001)
1.51
194 (26)
257 (52)
Speed of information processing
47.98 (P < .0001)
2, 43
.31
.69
Visual choice reaction time task
Reaction time (ms)
94.89 (P < .0001)
3.34
335 (28)
475 (53)
Stop-signal task
Rate of successful inhibition
1.13 (P = .29)
0.16
0.41 (0.15)
0.44 (0.21)
Behavioral inhibition
Stroop task
Interference cost (ms)
4.29 (P < .001)
3, 42
.77
.23
12.46 (P < .001)
1.10
189 (63)
291 (115)
RNG task
Adjacency score
5.96 (P < .02)
0.93
33.50 (7.04)
42.27 (11.29)
Letter running-span task
NO correct responses
2.69 (P = .11)
0.80
39.19 (4.62)
34.28 (7.35)
Updating of working memory
19.77 (P < .0001)
2, 43
.52
.48
Spatial running-span task
NO correct responses
36.81 (P < .0001)
2.23
41.25 (4.84)
23.31 (10.30)
Wisconsin card sorting test
NO perseverative errors
3.69 (P = .06)
0.79
8.50 (2.68)
12.81 (7.22)
Shifting
Dimension switching task
Global switch cost (ms)
8.37 (P < .0002)
3, 42
.63
.37
15.65 (P < .0003)
1.74
192 (154)
606 (299)
Stimulus-Response switching task
Local switch cost (ms)
9.86 (P < .0031)
1.09
71 (57)
184 (135)
Note. RNG: Random Number Generation, in bold: Significant effect.
