The effect of time stress and the elimination of cue information on the display-control relationships of moving scale instruments

Abstract

The reading of 4 rotary-moving scale assemblies of different display-control relationships was investigated using 16 Ss, 8 soldiers and 8 scientists, in a Latin-square design. Performance times, initial movement errors and final setting errors were recorded for runs of 60 dial settings on each assembly. Initial movement errors indicated that an assembly employing compatible movement, scale numbers increasing from left to right, and a "turn anticlockwise to increase" condition was optimum. Performance times tended to reflect the number of errors committed. No final setting errors were made, this being attributed to the nongraduated type of scale used. The absence of cue information provided by the visibility of 2 or more scale values was found to be detrimental to performance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)