Abstract
The influences of sex on the fitness of visual inspection tasks dependent on workers' visual, judgment and hand and fingers functions were investigated from the viewpoint of psychophysiological functions, work efficiencies and feelings of fatigue. In this project, a combination of field research and a simulation experiment was utilized. The results obtainted were as followes;
(1) The work load in the visual inspection workshop showed the work load pattern often seen in the monotonous work. Moreover, the interesting findings were that female workers were adaptable to this work because of the low rate of complaints of Subjective Feelings of Fatigue (SFF), the sites of physical fatigue symptoms (SPFS) and Cumulative Fatigue Symptoms Index.
(2) In an experimentally designed visual inspection task, there were no significant differences in the ocular accommodation functions of male and female workers, though there were more complaints of SPFS by female workers. However, it was suggested that the cerebral cortex activity level in the female workers was higher, while the occurrence of weariness and the desire to change, feelings of fatigue and the low level of consciousness factor were lower than in the male workers. Furthermore, the ratio of errors of the inspected parts and the number of grasping errors of the female workers were lower than those of the male workers.
Judging from those two studies, it is thought that the fitness of the female workers on the visual inspection task are higher than that of the male workers.
