- Goal: match the working Trial box (bottom white box)  to the Model box (top grey box) using a minimum number of moves
- 3 levels of difficulty: a) 3-move problem, b) 4-move problem, c) 5-move problem
- The task was given on a touch-sensitive screen and all subjects were required to use their dominant (right) hand.

Tower of London in the Study

This is a cognitive task consisting of colored spheres in 3 stacks. The goal is to match the given state to the model by rearranging the spheres in the minimum amount of moves. The spheres can only be moved in the order in which they appear in the stacks.

University of California, Davis

- Subjects
- Tower of London Task
- Testing Procedure
- Imaging Procedures


Methods of the TOL task

Beauchamp, M., Dagher, A., Aston, J., & Doyon, J. (2003). Dynamic functional changes associated with cognitive skill learning of an adapted version of the Tower of London task. NeuroImage, 20(3), 1649-1660. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2003.07.003

Dynamic functional changes associated with cognitive skill learning of an adapted version of the Tower of London task

Tower of London task

- total of 12 right-handed men (n=6) and women (n=6)
- Age range: 51 to 69 years
- Education: 11 to 20 years
- healthy individuals: no history of neurological, psychological, or cardiovascular problems
 - All subjects were tested using the Modified Mini Mental State examination and the Corsi Block Tapping task. Those receiving abnormally low scores were excluded from the study.

Subjects of the TOL task

- total testing session: about 2 hours
- Before the main test, the participants were asked to complete 5 practice problems of increasing difficulty (one move, two moves, etc.) to ensure participants understood the rules. 

Main task:
- 10 blocks of 9 TOL problems each (90 TOL problems total) were administered, where the order of the blocks were randomly generated for each participant.
- Order of difficulty: 3-move problem, then 5-move problem, then 4-move problem, etc.
- Subjects were instructed to plan their moves before moving any circles.
- Subjects had no time limit, but were limited to a maximum amount of moves (2 times the min. number of moves plus 4).

Testing Procedure of the TOL task

Although participants were scanned 11 times over the course of the session, only 6 PET scans were used in the analysis:
- 4 experimental scans
- 2 control scans

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