COMPARISON OF CONVENTIONAL AND DIGITAL TIME DISPLAYS

Abstract

An experiment was devised to compare the speed and accuracy of reading the time from possible forms of conventional rotary clocks and digital clocks for both 12-hour and 24-hour displays.

Twenty subjects were each presented with 9ft displays of digital and conventional clocks in a balanced experimental design.

The results showed that the speed of reading (for logging to the nearest minute) is three and a half to four times faster with a digital than with a conventional clock. The errors with a conventional clock arc ten times those with a digital clock. No significant difference was found between the 0-12-hour and 13-24-hour displays for either the digital or the conventional clock

Additional information

Notes on contributors

C. ZEFF

Now at University of Canterbury, Christchurch. New Zealand