Ergonomics and Aging - Fundamentals and Assessment Tools for Occupational Ergonomics - page 414

17.8.9 Promoting Safety on the Job with Warnings
Work-related injuries occur at a lower rate for older workers than for younger workers for almost all
occupations (Root, 1981). Experience on the job is often cited to explain this result. However,
another factor may be the importance that older adults place on warnings (Hancock et al., 2001;
Mayhorn et al., 2004b). Warnings are communications that are meant to promote safety by alerting
people to the presence of potential hazards in the environment and providing instructions to avoid
injury.
The communication-human information processing (C-HIP) model proposed by Wogalter et al.
(1999) described three components of the warning process: (1) the source or sender represents the orig-
inator of the warning, (2) the channel represents the medium (e.g., visual or auditory) used to deliver the
warning, and (3) the receiver is the end-user who progresses through a series of information processing
stages to determine a course of action. Cognitive and perceptual changes that cooccur with age are
receiver characteristics that can influence how an older worker might interact with a warning
(Mayhorn and Podany, in press; Rousseau et al., 1998).
Warnings can be transmitted through almost any sensory modality or channel but most commonly
encountered warnings are presented visually (e.g., medication labels) or auditorily (e.g., fire alarm
sirens). For instance, older workers in a factory environment might not notice an auditory fire alarm
if there is a high level of ambient background noise. Likewise, the same older factory workers may
not notice a visually displayed warning if glare from an adjacent window obscures the message. Given
age-related perceptual declines in vision and audition, it is important for employers to understand
any age-related changes in perception before deploying warnings in the work environment.
Receiver characteristics such as age-related cognitive changes in text comprehension and memory can
also impact how an older worker might interact with a warning. Given the reduced ability of older adults
to make inferences when they encounter novel warnings (Hancock et al., 2005) and well-documented
working memory deficits, older workers may be at a particular disadvantage when they encounter risk
communications designed to deliver a complex set of compliance instructions. Consider the “talking
box” warning investigated by Conzola and Wogalter (1999), which used a miniaturized voice system
to transmit numerous precautionary steps to be taken when installing the computer peripheral device
stored in the box. Older workers of the future might be faced with such warnings, therefore it is impera-
tive that employers and warning designers understand why this form of warning might be ineffective
given the receiver characteristics of older adults. Instead, future warning systems might use technology
to provide cognitive support by giving either carefully timed or prompted instructions initiated by the
user during installation (Wogalter and Mayhorn, 2005). In this fashion, employers armed with knowl-
edge concerning the receiver characteristics associated with older workers can provide a safe working
environment for all of their employees.
17.8.10 Training
Although eluded to in previous sections of this chapter, training is an aspect of the workplace that should
not be underrated. Computers and other technology have revolutionized the way almost all workers do
their jobs, from the office to the factory to the farm. Particularly with this ever changing technology,
comes a need for workers to be willing and able to learn new skills. Occupations that require extensive
computer skills tend to hire fewer older adult workers possibly because of perceptions that older workers
have difficulty learning new skills. Indeed, changing technology can be especially difficult for older adults
because they were educated and trained for a different work culture. However, some research has shown
that older adults are able and willing to learn new skills (for a comprehensive review, see Sterns and
Doverspike, 1989). In contrast, one meta-analysis of studies related to aging and training concluded
that older adults demonstrate poorer performance overall, less mastery of relevant material, and
slower performance compared to younger adults (Kubeck et al., 1996). Although the evidence is not con-
clusive whether one type of training is more beneficial for older adults compared to younger adults