Writing in a Digital World: Self-Correction While Typing in Younger and Older Adults

Yoram M. Kalman, Gitit Kavé and Daniil Umanski
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Yoram M. Kalman: The Department of Management and Economics, The Open University, 1 University Road, 43537 Ra’anana, Israel
Gitit Kavé: The Department of Education and Psychology, The Open University, 1 University Road, 43537 Ra’anana, Israel
Daniil Umanski: The Department of Management and Economics, The Open University, 1 University Road, 43537 Ra’anana, Israel

IJERPH, 2015, vol. 12, issue 10, 1-12

Abstract: This study examined how younger and older adults approach simple and complex computerized writing tasks. Nineteen younger adults (age range 21–31, mean age 26.1) and 19 older adults (age range 65–83, mean age 72.1) participated in the study. Typing speed, quantitative measures of outcome and process, and self-corrections were recorded. Younger adults spent a lower share of their time on actual typing, and demonstrated more prevalent use of delete keys than did older adults. Within the older group, there was no correlation between the total time spent on the entire task and the number of corrections, but increased typing speed was related to more errors. The results suggest that the approach to the task was different across age groups, either because of age or because of cohort effects. We discuss the interplay of speed and accuracy with regard to digital writing, and its implications for the design of human-computer interactions.

Keywords: aging; language production; editing; human-computer-interaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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