| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000)
Fiscal Year 2001: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000)
Fiscal Year 2000: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000)
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| Research Abstract |
As the proportion of the elderly in the entire population makeup grows, how to deal with them in businesses has become a serious issue in Japan. This study was conducted to determine the characteristics of task performance among the elderly in comparison with that of young people.
The tasks required in the present experiments were Lego block building and computer keyboard typing. There were two subject groups ; an old people group and a young people group (college students). In academic year 1999, changes in their task performance during five consecutive trials were analyzed for each task. In academic year 2000, the experiments were continued with some changes in their contents, and this time the relationship between fatigue and task performance was also closely observed. Then, in academic year 2001, two different levels of difficulty were arranged for the block building task, and the differences in the skill acquisition processes were analyzed in relation to two different sets of instr
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uctions.
The following were the three main results of the study. (1) Initial accommodation to new tasks is poor among the elderly, and they are also slow in their movements. (2) Old people are inferior to young people in terms of performance time, but perform their tasks patiently and accurately once they understand what to do. (3) In the comparison between the two sets of instructions, written or visual, with photos for the block building process, the difference in their effects was clearer between the levels of difficulty than between the subject groups. The task performing time was very long for the elderly in the first trial. In the second trial, mistake increased due to the sharp decrease in time for referring to the written instructions, resulting in virtually no reduction in their task performing time. It is indicated that older people have a strong tendency to perform a given task with the assumption that they know it.
The type of instruction that will prove effective depends on the task itself. For more effective skill acquisition and stable task performance with fewer mistakes, the means of instruction must be adapted, based on an understanding of the characteristics shown by young and old people. Less
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