Automatic teller machines and the older population

Subjects aged 50 years or older who had never used an automatic teller machine (ATM) were trained to use an ATM manufactured by NCR. There were four groups of 20 subjects. In all groups the training ended with a brief demonstration. Group 1 received the demonstration alone. Group 2 received a flash-card based training task which taught the meaning of the ATM keys. Group 3 received a simulator-based task which taught the idea of pressing buttons sequentially in order to complete a task unrelated to ATMs. Group 4 received all conditions. Results indicated that the demonstration alone was unsuccessful but that there were significant gains from both of the active training tasks. Results from a questionnaire suggested that, for the better performers, the training task also increased motivation to use an ATM. The implications of the results for a practical training task are discussed.

Conspicuity in realistic scenes: an eye-movement measure

An experiment is described to measure the distracting effects of advertisements on the conspicuity of routing signs in realistic scenes. Slides of railway station scenes were shown in which subjects had to search for a target word used in a routing sign present in the scene. Eye movements were recorded to determine search time and number of fixations during search time. Both search time and number of fixations increased systematically with the number of advertisements in two of the three experimental scenes. The distribution of fixations over the scenes is discussed.

Control of cardiac response under aversive stimulation. Superiority of a heart-rate feedback condition

The relative heart rate effects of biofeedback training, deep muscle relaxation, and a no-feedback/music procedure were compared during two criterion situations. The first consisted of a 25-min training period during which subjects received the assigned treatments. The second consisted of the pre- to posttraining reductions in heart rate reactivity to a series of aversive tone-shock trials. On the first criterion, the heart rate decreases of the feedback and no-feedback/music groups were not clearly distinguishable; however, both groups fell significantly below the muscle-relaxation group. By contrast, on the second criterion, the three groups were clearly distinguishable, with feedback subjects evidencing the most heart rate "control", followed by the muscle-relaxation and no-feedback/music groups, respectively. On the segment of the posttraining aversive trials conducted in the absence of the feedback signal, transfer of heart rate control was incomplete for feedback subjects, but still remained below the level of the other two groups. Training effects were more pronounced on tonic than on phasic heart rate changes. The difference between the two criterion situations suggests the possible need for and feasibility of employing a situational arousal methodology in evaluating the extent and limitation of physiological training procedures.