Very little empirical data are available on the capabilities of older adults relative to young adults in activities in which they have had many thousands of hours of experience at home or on the job. Since most laboratory tasks are deliberately designed to be somewhat abstract and unlike real-world activities, the current research literature provides very little basis for making predictions about the occupational suitability of adults of varying ages. The present project attempts to bridge the gap between laboratory and occupational activities by examining adult age differences in a variety of tasks designed to measure components of typing behavior. Preliminary data have already revealed that although typists between 20 and 70 years of age exhibit """"""""typical"""""""" age-related declines in the efficiency of laboratory measures of perceptual-motor performance, there is no age trend in the efficiency of the commonly performed, and highly overlearned, activity of typing. Finer analyses of the data also indicate that a mechanism apparently used by the older typists in normal typing to circumvent a slowing of elementary perceptual-motor processes is greater anticipation or preparation of forthcoming keystrokes. Two analytical studies in the current project are planned to confirm and extend this finding, and also to explore other compensatory mechanisms that might be employed by older typists. A third study will examine personnel records and attempt to obtain current timed typing scores of employees for whom earlier typing scores are still available. It is hoped that in this manner any longitudinal age changes in typing proficiency that occur could be detected without the expense and delay of a true longitudinal study. The long-term objectives of the project are: a) to investigate age trends in highly-practiced activities to determine whether age-related declines in component processes can be compensated for by extensive experience; and b) to provide a detailed description of the nature of any compensatory mechanisms employed by older adults.
| Salthouse, T A; Prill, K A (1988) Effects of aging on perceptual closure. Am J Psychol 101:217-38 |
| Salthouse, T A; Prill, K A (1987) Inferences about age impairments in inferential reasoning. Psychol Aging 2:43-51 |
| Cremer, R; Zeef, E J (1987) What kind of noise increases with age? J Gerontol 42:515-8 |
| Salthouse, T A; Saults, J S (1987) Multiple spans in transcription typing. J Appl Psychol 72:187-96 |
| Salthouse, T A (1987) Adult age differences in integrative spatial ability. Psychol Aging 2:254-60 |
| Salthouse, T A (1986) Effects of practice on a typing-like keying task. Acta Psychol (Amst) 62:189-98 |
| Salthouse, T A (1986) Perceptual, cognitive, and motoric aspects of transcription typing. Psychol Bull 99:303-19 |
