Auditory and visual distractor decrement in older worker manual assembly task learning: Impact of spatial reasoning, field independence, and level of education

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AbstractThis study examined the impact of age on manual assembly task learning in the presence of visual and auditory distracters. Manual assembly task learning (e.g., number of learning trials needed to obtain consistently accurate assembly and near asymptote performance times) was studied in men and women between 18 and 65 years of age. Higher spatial reasoning capabilities were associated with fewer trials to reach the learning criterion, faster manual assembly times, and material prophylaxis for the type of distractors addressed in this study that are likely to be encountered in the workplace. Years of formal education and field independence showed no impact on distractor‐based decrements in task learning. For the oldest group of subjects (>50 years), concomitant presentation of visual and auditory distractors that are commonly encountered in industry were associated with a greater number of learning trials that were needed to achieve asymptotic manual assembly task learning. Spatial reasoning and field independence measures were lower in the older than in the younger age groups (p < 0.05). When spatial reasoning was treated as a covariate, however, nearly all age differences found in learning performance in the face of distractors were removed. The findings suggest that selection of workers based on spatial reasoning ability, rather than age, would yield better manual task learning in the face of visual and auditory distraction. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.