Age-Related Differences in the Motoric Aspects of Transcription Typing Skill

• Published in: Psychology and aging 1993-03, Vol.8 (1), p.87-102
• Main Author: Bosman, Elizabeth A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Adult. Elderly; Age Differences; Aged; Aging - psychology; Attention; Biological and medical sciences; Developmental psychology; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Humans; Male; Mental Recall; Middle Aged; Motor Skills; Perceptual Motor Processes; Practice (Psychology); Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychomotor Performance; Reaction Time; Typing
• ISSN: 0882-7974; 1939-1498
• DOI: 10.1037/0882-7974.8.1.87

Eighty typists ranging in age from 21-71 years and in skill from 24-110 net words per minute participated in 2 experiments examining age-related differences in the motoric aspects of transcription typing skill. Age- and skill-related differences were examined for 2 simplified typing tasks: letter reaction time, which assessed latency to type a single keystroke, and digraph typing, which assessed the latencies to type 2 consecutive keystrokes. A finger tapping and choice reaction time task were also included. The results indicated that low-skill, older typists exhibited a deficit in both the translation and the execution components of motor performance, whereas high-skill, older typists exhibited a deficit in translation only. An additional task that manipulated preview of the text to be typed replicated the findings of Salthouse (1984) , suggesting that older typists compensate for age-related slowing by beginning keystroke preparation sooner.