The Coffee Challenge: a new method for the study of everyday action errors

Abstract

Errors in everyday activities pose significant consequences for individuals with mild cognitive deficits. However, there are few performance-based methods available to study action in these populations; the Coffee Challenge (CC) was designed for this purpose. Experiment 1 examined CC performance in healthy participants across 10 practice trials. Analyses showed evidence for routinization after 10 trials. In Experiment 2, CC performance was disrupted by dividing attention. Errors increased significantly, but performance was not qualitatively different from baseline. The results shed light on action impairments in patient populations and validate the CC as a promising new tool for future studies.