Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-2016

Publication Title

Ergonomics

Volume

60

Issue

4

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Abstract

A leading hypothesis to explain older adults’ overdependence on automation is age-related declines in working memory. However, it has not been empirically examined. The purpose of the current experiment was to examine how working memory affected performance with different degrees of automation in older adults. In contrast to the well-supported idea that higher degrees of automation, when the automation is correct, benefits performance but higher degrees of automation, when the automation fails, increasingly harms performance, older adults benefited from higher degrees of automation when the automation was correct but were not differentially harmed by automation failures. Surprisingly, working memory did not interact with degree of automation but did interact with automation correctness or failure. When automation was correct, older adults with higher working memory ability had better performance than those with lower abilities. But when automation was incorrect, all older adults, regardless of working memory ability, performed poorly.

Comments

This manuscript has been published in the journal Ergonomics. Please find the published version here (note that a subscription is necessary to access this version):

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00140139.2016.1189599

Taylor & Francis holds the copyright in this article.

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