title: Skill acquisition with text-entry interfaces: particularly older users benefit from minimized information-processing demands.
abstract: Operating information technology challenges older users if it requires executive control, which generally declines with age. Especially for novel and occasional tasks, cognitive demands can be high. We demonstrate how interface design can reduce cognitive demands by studying skill acquisition with the destination entry interfaces of two customary route guidance systems. Young, middle-aged, and older adults performed manual destination entry either with a system operated with multiple buttons in a dialogue encompassing spelling and list selection, or with a system operated by a single rotary encoder, in which an intelligent speller constrained destination entry to a single line of action. Each participant performed 100 training trials. A retention test after at least 10 weeks encompassed 20 trials. The same task was performed faster, more accurately, and produced much less age-related performance differences especially at the beginning of training if interface design reduced demand for executive control, perceptual processing, and motor control.
authors.affiliation: University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jahn
authors.forename: Josef F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Krems
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: applied cognition; cognitive ergonomics; interface design; skill acquisition; text entry