EFFECTS OF AUDITORY RADIO INTERFERENCE ON A FINE, CONTINUOUS, OPEN MOTOR SKILL

The effects of human speech on a fine, continuous, and open motor skil l were examined. A tape of auditory human radio traffic was interjecte d into a tank gunnery simulator during each training session for 4 wk. of training for 3 hr. a week. The dependent variables were identifica tion time, fire time, kill time, systems errors, and acquisition error s. These were measured by the Unit Conduct Of Fire Trainer (UCOFT). Th e interference was interjected into the UCOFT Tank Table Vm gunnery te st. A Solomon four-group design was used. A 2 x 2 analysis of variance was used to assess whether interference gunnery training resulted in improvements in interference posttest scores. During the first three w eeks of training, the interference group committed 106% more systems e rrors and 75% more acquisition errors than the standard group. The int erference training condition was associated with a significant improve ment from pre- to posttest of 44% in over-all UCOFT scores; however, w hen examined on the posttest the standard training did not improve per formance significantly over the same period. It was concluded that aud itory radio interference degrades performance of this fine, continuous , open motor skill, and interference training appears to abate the eff ects of this degradation.