The Effects of Moderate Heat Stress on Typewriting Performance

Abstract

A re-analysis is given of data from the Report of the New York State Commission on Ventilation (1923). Four climate chamber experiments are examined, in which typewriting performance was studied at air temperatures of 20 and 24°C. Sixteen male subjects worked for five days, seven hours a day, in a balanced design with different temperatures in morning and afternoon. Eight female subjects worked for 10 days under similar conditions. A further 16 male subjects worked for six days in a balanced design with three full days at each temperature, and seven female subjects worked for 10 days with five full days at each temperature. In every half-day of these experiments, during which subjects otherwise were obliged to work very hard, there was a period during which subjects could work at a typewriter if they chose, but were unsupervised and free to converse or rest- Tables of raw data from the typewriting task were published. By using non-parametric statistical methods that were not available at the time of original publication, it is shown that subjects performed considerably and significantly more work at 20° than at 24°C on the typewriting task