The successful adoption of technology is becoming increasingly important to functional independence. The present article reports findings from the Center for Research and Education on Aging and Technology Enhancement (CREATE) on the use of technology among community-dwelling adults. The sample included 1,204 individuals ranging in age from 18-91 years. All participants completed a battery that included measures of demographic characteristics, self-rated health, experience with technology, attitudes toward computers, and component cognitive abilities. Findings indicate that the older adults were less likely than younger adults to use technology in general, computers, and the World Wide Web. The results also indicate that computer anxiety, fluid intelligence, and crystallized intelligence were important predictors of the use of technology. The relationship between age and adoption of technology was mediated by cognitive abilities, computer self-efficacy, and computer anxiety. These findings are discussed in terms of training strategies to promote technology adoption.
Older adults (n = 113) participated in focus groups discussing their use of and attitudes about technology in the context of their home, work, and healthcare. Participants reported using a wide variety of technology items, particularly in their homes. Positive attitudes (i.e., likes) outnumbered negative attitudes (i.e., dislikes), suggesting that older adults perceive the benefits of technology use to outweigh the costs of such use. Positive attitudes were most frequently related to how the technology supported activities, enhanced convenience, and contained useful features. Negative attitudes were most frequently associated with technology creating inconveniences, unhelpful features, as well as security and reliability concerns. Given that older adults reported more positive than negative attitudes about the technologies they use, these results contradict stereotypes that older adults are afraid or unwilling to use technology. These findings also highlight the importance of perceived benefits of use and ease of use for models of technology acceptance. Emphasizing the benefits of technology in education and training programs may increase future technology adoption.
A critical construct related to human-robot interaction (HRI) is autonomy, which varies widely across robot platforms. Levels of robot autonomy (LORA), ranging from teleoperation to fully autonomous systems, influence the way in which humans and robots may interact with one another. Thus, there is a need to understand HRI by identifying variables that influence – and are influenced by – robot autonomy. Our overarching goal is to develop a framework for levels of robot autonomy in HRI. To reach this goal, the framework draws links between HRI and human-automation interaction, a field with a long history of studying and understanding human-related variables. The construct of autonomy is reviewed and redefined within the context of HRI. Additionally, the framework proposes a process for determining a robot’s autonomy level, by categorizing autonomy along a 10-point taxonomy. The framework is intended to be treated as guidelines to determine autonomy, categorize the LORA along a qualitative taxonomy, and consider which HRI variables (e.g., acceptance, situation awareness, reliability) may be influenced by the LORA.
Young and old Ss were tested in 3 experiments conducted to explore factors leading to age-related performance differences in consistent mapping (CM) and varied mapping (VM) search tasks. The separate and combined influences of memory scanning and visual search on age-related search effects were examined. In both CM letter and CM semantic category search, age interacted with comparison load in visual and hybrid memory-visual search conditions, whereas differential age effects were not present in pure memory search. For VM search, age effects were present only in pure memory search. These data support the view that the separation of type of search training (CM and VM) as well as memory and visual search components is critical for predicting age-related performance differences. The dissociation of the pattern of age effects in memory and visual search suggests that memory and visual search involve different processing mechanisms.
The relationships between long-term memory (LTM) modification, attentional allocation, and type of processing are examined. Automatic/controlled processing theory (Schneider & Shiffrin, 1977) predicts that the nature and amount of controlled processing determines LTM storage and that stimuli can be automatically processed with no lasting LTM effect. Subjects performed the following: (a) an intentional learning, (b) a semantic categorization, (c) a graphic categorization, (d) a distracting digit-search while intentionally learning words, and (e) a distracting digit-search while ignoring words. Frequency judgments were more accurate in the semantic and intentional conditions than the graphic condition. Frequency judgments in the digit-search conditions were near chance. Experiment 2 extensively trained subjects to develop automatic categorization. Automatic categorization produced no frequency learning and little recognition. These results also disconfirm the Hasher and Zacks (1979) "automatic encoding" proposal regarding the nature of processing.
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