Evidence-informed planning framework
Plan cognitive tasks by prediction, control, switching, and integration
This page turns the research notes into a portal-ready protocol for educational materials: what to vary, what to measure, how to package dual-task work, and how to describe eye-movement activities as visual attention and oculomotor control.
Start with a clear prediction, add one control demand, switch the rule only when performance is stable, and finish by naming the strategy that worked.
Educational reference for specialists and structured practice. It is not diagnosis, treatment, or a replacement for clinical judgment.
PCS-I protocol
The protocol gives each exercise a visible cognitive role. It can be used with printable tasks, live sessions, and generator settings.
Prediction
Before action, the learner estimates the route, answer, difficulty, or next state. This creates a target for feedback instead of passive trial-and-error.
Control
The task asks the learner to hold a rule, suppress the most automatic response, monitor errors, and stay with the chosen strategy.
Switching
One rule changes at a time: color, direction, target category, response mode, or walking rhythm. The goal is controlled transition, not random multitasking.
Integration
The final step connects visual, motor, language, memory, or everyday reasoning demands, then records what changed and what stayed stable.
Session templates
Use the same structure with different intensity: seated work, visual tracking, coordinated movement, or specialist-led sessions.
5-7 minutes
Seated orientation warm-up
Use a simple search, Schulte, route, or naming task. Ask for a quick prediction, run one short block, and record time, errors, and strategy.
7-10 minutes
Visual tracking block
Use zigzag, spiral, figure-eight, gates, or point-to-point fixation tasks. Keep the head comfortable, pause on discomfort, and vary only path, speed, or distractors.
10-15 minutes
Coordination walk with a task
Pair slow walking with naming, counting, sorting, or a memory rule. The arms-forward Zombie Walk variation can act as a visible posture anchor while the learner names targets or changes direction.
20-30 minutes
Specialist-led adaptive session
Use baseline, two adaptive blocks, a short break, and a transfer check with a similar but untrained task. Change one difficulty lever per block.
Repackaging eye movement
Eye-movement tasks should be framed as visual attention, fixation shifts, smooth visual tracking, peripheral awareness, and rule control. The wording stays educational and avoids therapy claims.
Visual route gates
The learner follows a path and names gates, turns, or landmarks. The target is route planning and sustained visual attention.
Point-to-point fixation shifts
The learner shifts fixation between targets by rule. The target is controlled orienting, inhibition, and response timing.
Peripheral attention sweep
The learner keeps a central reference while noticing side targets. The target is distributed attention, not eye strain.
Anti-target rule
The learner responds away from a cue or chooses the opposite category. This turns a simple gaze task into inhibition practice.
Route from memory
After a preview, the learner reconstructs the path or sequence. This links visual attention with working memory.
Visual Stroop gaze rule
The learner follows the rule, not the most salient stimulus. This adds conflict control without claiming a clinical effect.
Glossary for the protocol
Short definitions for portal users. They explain why a task setting exists without turning the product into medical advice.
Tonic dopamine
A simplified label for baseline motivational tone and readiness to engage. In product language, use it to discuss pacing, novelty, and sustainable challenge.
Phasic dopamine
A brief signal associated with prediction error and learning from unexpected outcomes. In tasks, make predictions explicit before feedback.
Default mode network
A network linked with internally directed thought, autobiographical memory, and mind-wandering. Structured tasks can give attention an external anchor.
Frontal lobes
Regions strongly involved in planning, inhibition, working memory, and goal-directed behavior. Avoid saying one worksheet trains the frontal lobes directly.
Executive functions
Control processes such as inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and planning. They are useful labels for exercise design and measurement.
Dual-task walking
Walking while doing a cognitive task. It increases coordination and attention demands and should be adjusted conservatively for safety.
Sources and reading
These sources do not make the product medical. They explain the research vocabulary behind structured cognitive activities.