Having met the conditions for the age amount, the form-filler goes to section 6 on page 4 for further details about the age amount. He or she must then decide what amount to actually claim as an age amount. We should also point out here that all the seniors with net incomes over $25,921 have already been directed to skip this item. In reality, those with incomes between $25,921 and $49,134 should be doing the calculation here. This is clearly an error in the instructions on page 1. (Part of the reason we are working with an old form is that nobody will ‘lose face’ for mistakes made in the last millennium.) In order to determine the actual age amount, the form-filler will have to determine which of three categories he or she fits into, and if it is the final category, perform a rather involved calculation. The first task, that of determining the applicable income category, is primarily a document processing task. The question asked by the form-filler at this point is something like: “What age amount do I enter on line 6 if I am 66 and I estimate I will have a net income of $30,000 this year?” To answer the question the respondent locates the income figure in the first bulleted point, ‘over $49,134’ and compares this to the given figure, $30,000; then cycle to locate the income in the second bulleted point, ‘$25,921, or less’ and makes another comparison, finally making a match on the third point. This is an integration task (3); which compares (+0); with 2 search features (+1); one item response (+0); literal match on search feature (+0); requested information requires no inference (+0); rating for type of match is 4. The type of information requested is an amount, rated at 2. As there are several amounts mentioned, there are some distractors for the requested information.

Some respondents will be directed to perform the calculation beside the text passage. It comprises a subtraction, a multiplication by a percent, and another subtraction which might result in a negative number.

The first subtraction is straightforward and involves entering a ‘given’ amount and subtracting a number already entered onto the form.

The second operation is more complex and asks the form-filler to multiply the results of the first operation by 15% and re-enter. The multiplication by a percent is not a common operation, and undoubtedly many people would not be unable to carry it out without explicit instructions. The actual calculation is a multiplication, rated at 4 on the ‘type of operation’ scale. On the ‘specificity of operation’ rating scale, the numbers are not in a column ready for calculation (+1); they are adjacent (+0); labels and amounts identified without a search (+0); the operation is based on a known ratio (percent) (+3); numbers are identified in a previous task (+1); total rating of 5. There are no obvious distractors.

The final operation, the subtraction of the results of the percentage calculation from the maximum age amount is well-specified and poses no significant difficulty. (Level 1)