Although design universalities have generally been validated through analyses of human-artifact interactions, older adults frequently exhibit difficulties in using many types of IT-based equipment compared with younger adults. We hypothesize that the age-group difference is due to inefficient learning by the older adults, who are affected by declines in their cognitive functions, including episodic memory. In pursuing this hypothesis and exploring ways to compensate for such learning inefficiency, Experiment 1 was conducted to examine learning to use a piece of IT equipment (a diet-support system, WELLNAVI) with four different designs. The results indicated that older adults had difficulties in learning to use the equipment compared with younger adults. However, comparisons between the four designs revealed that eliminating some decision requirements facilitated learning in the older adults, and that presenting information in a printed book, rather than via computer, also promoted learning. The results of Experiment 2, investigating why the printed format facilitated learning in the older adults, suggest that the task-structure information physically represented in the book format is effective for learning.j pr_440 227..243Key words: cognitive aging, learning inefficiency, design of human-artifacts interaction.Currently, many Western and Westernized societies are undergoing two kinds of drastic changes: one is the aging of society, and the other is an increasing dependency on information technology (IT). The occurrence of these two phenomena ushers in special problems, particularly for older adults with respect to their ability to accommodate to new IT-based equipment or systems. It is broadly claimed that older adults generally have difficulties using IT-based artifacts. This has been widely verified in research in which different age groups are tested for performances in using IT equipment; compared with young adults, the performance of older adults is poorer (Hara, Naka, & Harada, 2009). Based on these and related results using various IT-based artifacts, Harada and Akatsu (2003) proposed a three-layered model for cognitive aging and usability problems. Recently, this model has been restructured into a four-layered model (Harada, 2009).The new four-layered model (Figure 1) includes three layers described in the initial
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