Ergonomics and Aging - Fundamentals and Assessment Tools for Occupational Ergonomics - page 412

(Brandimonte et al., 1996). For instance, older workers may remind themselves to attend a late afternoon
meeting by leaving their umbrella by the door or placing the appointment in a planner and leaving it
in view on their desk. The use of an alarm or automated reminder is similarly beneficial. The ability
to effectively use these reminder cues as memory aids should decrease the likelihood of forgetting
work-related prospective tasks.

17.8.6 Experience and Decision-Making
Naturalistic decision-making emphasizes the ability of decision-makers to use their previous experience
in real-world settings (Zsambok and Klein, 1997). The recognition-primed decision-making model
championed by Klein (1988) postulates that decisions are formulated by examining decision contexts
for familiar patterns recognized from earlier personal experience. Because older adults retain extensive
knowledge in semantic memory, they may excel in making decisions in familiar environments. For
instance, an older employee might remember the last time a particular problem occurred with a photo-
copier. The older worker with access to this past experience might offer an immediate solution that works
or readily eliminate solution options that failed in the past. In this fashion, an older adult's extensive
domain knowledge and experience should be considered a resource that can benefit the older worker,
coworkers, and the organization.

17.8.7 Equipment Factors for Improving Worker Task Match

In addition to pairing older adults with appropriate tasks that make use of their abilities and minimize
their limitations, employers must realize that work occurs in a physical environment that often requires
the use of tools such as computers and other equipment. Employers can benefit from knowledge
concerning how older adults interact with computers, the problems they experience during use, and
the relatively simple adjustments that can be made to the equipment to make it more usable by
older workers.
Many of the perceptual, motor, and cognitive changes that cooccur with age directly impact the ability
to use a computer. Perceptual changes in vision such as presbyopia and sensitivity to glare actively inter-
act with the display characteristics of a computer monitor. Presbyopia can diminish an older adult's
ability to see information that appears on the monitor; however, the use of multifocal corrective
lenses, particularly bifocals or trifocals, is one means of compensating for this decrease in visual percep-
tion. Other methods of accommodation include altering the settings on the computer to increase font
and icon size. Increased sensitivity to glare may also reduce older adults' ability to see the display. Accom-
modations to reduce glare include eliminating the light source causing the glare, tilting the computer
monitor, and placing a screen cover over the monitor.
Although declines in vision seem most pertinent, age-related auditory declines may also reduce the
usability of computer displays. For instance, auditory feedback is useful in determining whether a
word processing function was executed or whether an icon was single or double-clicked in many
current computer systems. As computer systems evolve to include more complex auditory feedback
such as voice interfaces, age-related declines such as presbycusis might severely impact an older
worker's ability to use a computer effectively. Accommodations that might reduce the impact of presby-
cusis include changing the computer settings to increase the volume of feedback, using a headset to
funnel feedback directly to the ears, and reducing background noise in the office environment.
Age-related declines in motor control influence the usability of input devices such as computer mice
(Smith et al., 1999; Rogers et al., 2005; Walker et al., 1997). In each of these studies, older adults displayed
deficits when asked to point and click on specific objects, clicking and dragging objects on the computer
screen, and single-clicking some objects while double-clicking others. Results from a recent study inter-
viewing older adults who had completed a computer training course at a community center indicated
that playing computer games, such as solitaire, is useful for improving motor coordination with com-
puter mice (Mayhorn et al., 2004a). Other accommodations that can remedy clicking problems

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