Objective: Cognitive flexibility is the ability to transition between various tasks flexibly, which declines in aging. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to investigate the effect of a 12-week multicomponent exercise intervention on cognitive flexibility and attention, measured by color trail test (CTT)-1, CTT-2, and CTT 2-1 difference, in community-dwelling older adults. The relationship between cognitive flexibility and muscular fitness was also examined. Methods: The participants were assigned to either the exercise group ( n = 41, aged 70.6 ± 5.9 years) or the control group ( n = 18, aged 67.9 ± 4.9 years). The exercise group participated in a 90-minute multicomponent exercise session, including endurance, resistance, and stretching training, twice a week for 12 weeks. Participants in the control group maintained their sedentary lifestyle. CTT and muscular fitness, including 30-second arm curl, 30-second chair stand, and 2-minute step tests, were measured before and after the intervention. Results: A significant group×time interaction effect was found in CTT-2, CTT 2-1 difference, chair stand, and step test. After the intervention, the exercise group showed a significantly better cognitive flexibility, indicated by faster completion time in CTT-2 (before: 140.3 ± 60.1 seconds, after: 127.0 ± 60.6 seconds) and improved CTT 2-1 difference (before: 82.8 ± 49.5 seconds, after: 72.2 ± 49.0 seconds). The exercise group also improved the number of repetitions in chair stand (before: 18.5 ± 5.0, after: 22.8 ± 5.5) and step test (before: 108.9 ± 16.2, after: 126.2 ± 19.0). The cognitive and muscular performance remained unchanged in the control group. Moreover, better performance in the 30-second chair stand test was associated with faster completion time in CTT-1 at baseline ( r = –0.296). Conclusions: The amelioration in cognitive flexibility coincided with improvements in muscular fitness after a 12-week multicomponent exercise intervention in older adults. Better muscular strength was associated with higher cognitive flexibility at the baseline.

In-group heterogeneity is often neglected during investigations of motor development patterns in children. Moreover, the variation in motor development patterns over time has seldom been examined. In this work, 1884 three-year-old preschoolers were selected from a panel study conducted in Taiwan called the National Longitudinal Study of Child Development and Care. A confirmatory factor analysis was applied to analyze the construct validity of the assessments of motor development used for these children. A latent profile analysis and latent transition analysis (LTA) were sequentially applied to clarify their motor development patterns at the ages of three and four years and their transitions between these two ages. The following findings were obtained: (1) The motor development assessment had good validity. (2) Considerable heterogeneity regarding motor development in preschoolers was observed, in which four and three subgroups displaying distinct levels of mastery with respect to their gross and fine motor skills were identified at the ages of three and four years, respectively. (3) From age three to age four, a large proportion of the preschoolers exhibited improvements or retentions in both gross and fine motor skills, whereas some of the preschoolers were classified into subgroups displaying “gross motor retention and fine motor progression,” “gross motor progression and fine motor retention,” “gross motor retention and fine motor regression,” and “gross motor regression and fine motor progression.” Few preschoolers exhibited “general motor regression.” The present results suggest that there were considerable heterogeneous groups in the motor development in preschoolers in the middle of early childhood, and this phenomenon has rarely been addressed in former studies. The LTA results implied that effective interventions should be given sequentially to preschoolers in subgroups whose motor development presented regression and retention tendencies.