The use to which a tool was put and the person who used it were examined in relation to other attributes to try to identify any idiosyncratic difference in the ways that tools were selected and used. There were significant differences between users in the length of time they worked with tools (P<0.01). Users 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 11 spent significantly less time on tasks than the others, while users 2 and 9 spent significantly longer (Table 14). This variation may be related to the different uses which individuals made of tools, as there was variability in the materials worked on by different users (P<0.001). User 1 concentrated more on fewer tasks while user 3 did a wide range of different things. The tool users also made significantly different use of the tools. There was also a highly significant difference in the length of time tools were used for different purposes (P<0.01) (Table 15).
| user | wood | butchery | bone | rattan | bamboo | grass | vine | tree fern | time - seconds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1073 | ||||
| 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1575 | |||||
| 3 | 2 | 9 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 615 | |||
| 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 592 | |||||
| 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 999 | ||||
| 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 756 | |||||
| 7 | 1 | 513 | |||||||
| 8 | 1 | 543 | |||||||
| 9 | 1 | 1715 | |||||||
| 10 | 1 | 1100 | |||||||
| 11 | 2 | 84.5 |
Comparisons of the time spent on different tasks shows that significantly more time was spent on working wood and tree fern compared to other materials
| Material | Average time of task per tool (seconds) |
|---|---|
| butchering | 84.5 |
| grass | 453 |
| bone | 570 |
| vine | 618 |
| bamboo | 713 |
| rattan | 865 |
| tree fern | 1168 |
| wood | 1224 |
Users were separated into two gross physical types; large and slight. No relationships were found with any variables, on the basis of a person's physical type.
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Last updated: Wed Oct 8 2003