METHODS OF TRAINING OLDER WORKERS

Abstract

Three experiments are described which 9how subjects in middle age to learn more rapidly and thoroughly if they can do so by way of actual performance of the task rather than by memorization of instructions. The first two experiments used laboratory-type card-sorting tasks. The third involved training in the mending of worsted cloth. An experimental training method, which has been described in a previous article (Belbin et al. 1957), was compared with the traditional ‘ exposure ’ or ‘ sit-by-nie ’ method. The experimental method aimed at removing the perceptual difficulty which had been found in previous experiments to be a limitation upon success in training young girls to mend. This method was found to yield even better results with middle-aged subjects than it had with school-leavers.