Suchergebnisse

Training is a neglected area for improvement of industrial inspection performance. Previous work shows that training can be effective but provides the reader with general principles rather than detailed examples of training programs. The experiment reported here gives details of two training programs devised for a complex visual inspection task. They differed only in that one (active) required the trainee to make an active response at each stage, while the other (passive) did not. Task performance for 42 subjects in three age groups showed significantly better performance (fewer errors) with the active training program. The specific error types reduced by active training were those logically related to the training program. There was a significant age decrement in performance, but it was smaller in magnitude than the difference between training programs.

Learning-to-learn skills were hypothesized as reasons for poorer learning performance by older workers. To test this on a complex, simulated industrial inspection task, 84 subjects in three age groups were trained for the task. Half received restraining on organization of memory material and on size discrimination using tasks not directly related to the inspection task. Inspection speed decreased with age while errors increased. Pretraining reduced size discrimination errors and decision errors, having a larger effect than the age decrement and a consistent effect across age groups. There was no interaction between pretraining and the type (active or passive) of task training scheme used to train for the inspection task. It is concluded that intervention by pretraining and by the use of active training can improve the employability of older workers by removing the perceived barrier of their trainability.