Cognitive, perceptual, sensory and verbal abilities as predictors of PDA text entry error and instructions across the lifespan

Abstract

Sixty-three participants (range from 18 to 85 years of age) completed 4 data entry tasks on an HP iPAQ 5450 via a touch-screen QWERTY keyboard, as well as a battery of neuro-cognitive tests. Entry errors and assistance required by participants were coded into categories. Multiple regression analyses revealed that episodic memory was the strongest predictor for stand-still errors and commission errors, while sensory abilities was the strongest predictor of omission errors. We suggest that raining sessions that familiarize older adults wim the functions of specific keys (e.g. Spacebar and Backspace) and structure of the keyboard, complemented with visual or auditory feedback provided by the keyboard as methods to improve text entry accuracy. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.