Investigating Issues in Aging and Work Performance Using a Customer Service Task Simulator

Abstract

This paper discusses the use of a simulation tool for investigating information search performance in customer service work involving e-mail correspondence. Some unique opportunities for examining issues in aging and task performance that this customer service task simulator provides are also discussed. Integrated into this discussion are some results from an initial study of age group differences in performance of this type of task. Most importantly, this simulator's portability and the ease in which realistic customer queries can be captured enable it to be used as a platform for translating experimental research findings into more real-world settings by investigating task performance within the user's home environment.