Age-related changes
A number of observations on the use of laparoscopic techniques in surgery, but also on performance with comparatively simple tasks as the operation of a computer mouse, suggest that motor tasks with indirect sight (and transformed movements) represent a challenge for older workers. Systematic studies on the learning of new transformations revealed inconsistent findings on age-related changes, even though older people essentially never surpassed younger ones. We analyze the conditions and causes of age-related changes in the learning of new visuo-motor transformations in more detail. Among the guiding hypotheses is that only some of the processes that are involved in the mastery of transformed movements are affected by age, and that the learning of different kinds of transformations might be affected to different degrees. In addition secondary-task interference could increase with age because of generally increasing integration of cognitive and motor processes.