The Influence of Age and Experience on the Performance of a Data Entry Task

Abstract

Findings from research examining age and computer task performance indicate that older people perform less well than younger people on these types of tasks. The present study examined whether age-related performance differences are maintained with task experience. To address this issue one hundred and ten subjects, ranging in age from 20—75 yrs., performed a data entry task over a three day period. The task represented a simulation of a real world job. The data indicated significant age differences in work output (amount of data entered). Further, although there were significant improvements in performance with increased task experience across subjects, age group differences were maintained over time. With respect to errors there were no age effects and there was a significant reduction in errors across the three days. However, the pattern of change varied across age groups. These results are consistent with other studies which suggest that experience does not compensate for age effects for tasks which emphasize speed of processing.