Gender-Based Comparison of Walking Speed and Simultaneous Mental Math Performance

Abstract

Walking is so automatic to us that we often multitask while walking (for instance, by talking to others, carrying things, or eating/drinking). However, it might be expected that multitasking would cause gait to change as compared to walking without multitasking. The purpose of this study was to compare time differences between males and females during forward and backward walking with simultaneous mental math performance. Nine subjects walked across three 7 m sheets of brown paper placed on the floor with markered moleskin pads on their feet while being given mental math problems. This procedure was done for both forward and backward walking. Time to complete the task, step length, step width, stride length, and math problem responses were recorded. There were no significant differences between genders in terms of time-to-completion or mental math results.