A sample of the current projects being conducted in the Human Factors and Aging Laboratory include: Age Differences in the Effects of Poor Contrast on Reading Strategies Age Differences in Technologies Used Designing More Effective Visual Displays Health-care Provider/Patient Communication Effect of Perceived Consequence on Reliance on Automation Knowledge Modification Privacy in an Aware Home Role of User Expectation in Human-Automation Interaction Technology Use by Older Adults Training and Understanding the Structure of a System Understanding Inferences Virtual Keyboard Design

Project Description Current Status/Findings Age Differences in the Effects of Poor Contrast on Reading Strategies Contact Person: Tracy Mitzner [back to top] This research is directed toward understanding age differences in reading strategies, particularly those used when text is difficult to read due to poor contrast (e.g., when dark text is printed on a dark background). Our findings can guide text writers and designers about factors that facilitate reading for older adults. Our results revealed that older adults were affected to a greater extent compared to younger adults when reading text that was presented with poor contrast. Moreover, neither younger nor older adults were able to compensate for the poor viewing conditions by taking advantage of contextual information contained in the text.     Presentation/Publication:  Mitzner, T. L. & Rogers, W.A. (2006). Reading in the dark: Effects of age and contrast on reading speed and comprehension. Human Factors, 48(2) 229-240. Project Description Current Status/Findings Age Differences in Technologies Used Contact Person: Marita O'Brien [back to top] Previous analysis of the CREATE I data has shown age differences in the use of computers and technology. Yet, the studies do not clearly depict why and when there are age-related differences in computer and technology use.  By reviewing the CREATE II data, we will describe technology use for older and younger adults with a focus on technology type, frequency of use, and domain of use.  Data is being collected and  analyzed.     Project Description Current Status/Findings Designing More Effective Visual Displays Contact Person: Cara Bailey [back to top] Many different situations require displays that can encompass a variety of information and display that information clearly and effectively in a limited display area. The purpose of this study is to identify and examine the different design principles that can aid in the extraction of different types of information from a display in a complex environment. Data collection is underway.   Project Description Current Status/Findings Health-care Provider/Patient Communication Contact Person: Jayme Hickman [back to top] The goal of this study is to understand what kinds of difficulties people have when they are trying to communicate with their health care provider (e.g., doctor, nurse, pharmacist). Understanding what difficulties people have during communication and how they may solve them will help us understand how technology can assist in successful communication between patients and their health care providers. Preliminary results indicate that many of the reported strategies used by older adults are implemented after a communication failure has occurred. The best solution to communication problems is in the realm of prevention rather then correction. Currently we are developing guidelines to assist older adults in the prevention of communication problems.   Presentation/Publication:  Hickman, J.M., Pak, R., Stronge, A.J., & Jones, W.B.  (2004).  Exploring Communication between Health Care Professionals and Older Adults.  Paper presented at the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 48th Annual Meeting, New Orleans. Project Description Current Status/Findings Effect of Perceived Consequence on  Automation Reliance Contact Person: Neta Ezer [back to top]   This project looks at the factors that influence peoples' trust in automation, specifically the type of  automation known as a decision aid, which gives the person a suggested action that the person can decide to follow or not follow. This choice, to agree or not agree with the decision aid's suggestion, may be influenced by what is at risk if the suggestion is wrong and a  mistake is made. It may also be influenced by the costs involved in seeking out additional information that could confirm or disconfirm what the decision aid is suggesting. Essentially, the person must balance the benefits and costs of following the suggestion of the decision aid versus not following it. The results of this study could potentially guide the design of automation placed in high-risk situations so that people will be able to use the automation appropriately. Preliminary results suggest that people tend to have more trust in their own abilities, rather than in the abilities of a decision aid, when there is a relatively high cost of making a mistake. When the cost of checking an aid's suggestion is high, people tend to agree with the suggestion of the aid more frequently.   Presentation/Publications:  Ezer N., Fisk, A.D., & Rogers, W.A. (2005). The Effect of perceived consequence on automation reliance in a human-automation collaborative system. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 49th Annual Meeting. Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Sanchez, J., Ezer, N., Rogers, W.A., & Fisk, A.D. (2005). Designing collaborative environments for older adults. Human Computer Interaction International. Las Vegas, NV. Project Description Current Status/Findings Knowledge Modification Contact Person: Anne Adams [back to top] Research has shown that over time, we tend to revert to old-held beliefs in light of new information which contradict our beliefs. With this study we investigated whether this reversal trend will also be observed when the initial information is only recently acquired. The goal is to determine interventions that will counteract and enhance recall of new, contradicting information when this becomes important, as for example, we receive new information from health care professionals about how to treat an illness. Current results suggest that much of the contradiction was retained by both younger and older adults. However, some of the initial information resurfaced and more so for older adults than younger adults. Interestingly, both age groups did recall a combined version of old and new information.   Presentation/Publication:  Anne E. Adams, C. Travis Bowles, Ki C. Choi, Wendy A. Rogers, & Arthur D. Fisk (2005). The effect of contradictory information on recently acquired knowledge.  Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 49th Annual Meeting. Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Project Description Current Status/Findings Privacy in an Aware Home Contact Person: Kelly Caine [back to top]   Older adults in particular stand to benefit from new technologies that use visual sensing devices to collect and share information about residents of smart or aware homes like Georgia Tech's Aware Home.  However, there is little research that explores the privacy concerns older adults may have when choosing whether to use these technologies in their homes.  The goal of this study is to examine any potential privacy concerns that older adults may have about using visual sensing devices in their home as well as factors that may mitigate those concerns. Data collection is complete and analysis is underway.   Presentation/Publication:  Caine, K. E., Rogers, W. A., & Fisk, A. D. (2007). Designing Privacy Conscious Aware Homes for Older Adults. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 51st Annual Meeting. Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Project Description Current Status/Findings Role of User Expectations in Human-Automation Interaction Contact Person: Andrew Mayer [back to top]   As people interact with automated systems they develop general expectations about automation performance, however; it is unclear how these expectations affect reliance. The purpose of this study is to investigate how peoples’ expectations of automation performance influence reliance and how expectations interact with automation errors. More specifically, I am interested in how user reliance changes as a function of level of user expectations, type of automation errors, and time. Data collection is underway. Project Description Current Status/Findings Technology Use  by Older Adults Contact Person:  Tracy Mitzner [back to top]   Technology has the potential to improve the quality of life of older adults and to provide support for age-associated declines. We are conducting focus groups to better understand the needs and preferences of older adults concerning technology and technology training. The focus groups are being conducted at three sites: Georgia Institute of Technology, Florida State University, and University of Miami. We are asking older adults which technology items they use and the frequency with which they use them, what they like and dislike about each item, what type of training they think is best for each item, for what tasks they need training, and what methods of training they think would be useful to learn each task. Our goal is to gather information about older adults’ experiences with technology in their everyday lives to provide a basis for research to examine potential technology design and training improvements. We found that older adults are using a wide variety of technologies, particularly in their homes.  Moreover, older adults reported more likes than dislike of technology.  The most frequent reasons provided for liking technology included convenience, features, and support for activities.  The most frequent reasons reported for disliking technology included inconvenience and concerns about security and reliability.  The likes and dislikes reported by older adults in this study can be used by designers to make technologies that are more apt to meet the needs and preferences of older adults thereby making technology adoption more likely.    The training data are currently in the analysis stage.   Presentation/Publications:  Mitzner, T. L., Adams, A., Argüelles, T., Bailey, C. L., Boron, J. B., Lee, C. C., Weitz, J. R., Charness, N., Czaja, S. J., Dijkstra, K., Fisk, A. D., Rogers, & W.A., Sharit, J. (2006, August).  Technology use by older adults.  Presented at the 114th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association.  New Orleans, LA. Fausset, C. B., Mitzner, T. L., Adams, A., Boron, J. B., Dijkstra, K., Charness, N., Argüelles, T., Lee, C. C., Rogers, W. A., & Fisk, A. D. (2007, August). Technology use by older adults in the work domain. Presented at the 115th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association. San Francisco, CA. Mitzner, T. L., Boron, J. B., Rogers, W. A., & Fisk, A. D.  (2007, November).  Older adults’ attitudes toward health-related technology use.  Presented at the Gerontological Society of America 60th Annual Meeting.  San Francisco, CA. Mitzner, T. L., Adams, A. E., Boron, J. B., Fausset, C. B., Rogers, W. A., & Fisk, A. D. (2008, April).  Understanding older adults’ attitudes about technology use in the home. Presented at the Cognitive Aging Conference 2008. Atlanta, GA. Project Description Current Status/Findings Training and Understanding the Structure of the System Contact Person:  Jamye Hickman [back to top]   While living and working in today's high-tech world, the ability to perform tasks and understand the system structure of technology may affect our lives in many ways.  For example, calibrating a medical device such as a blood glucose meter may be performed only infrequently but an adequate knowledge of the system structure may be critical for doing it correctly.  The goal of this project is to understand how training effects learning and an understanding of the system structure. With the ever-increasing prevalence of these complex systems in everyday domains such as medical care, communication, transportation, and entertainment, understanding the system structure may potentially result in a better quality of life. The first study in this project is complete. The results suggests that training providing directions about general system concepts may lead to the development of a better understanding of the system structure compared to training focused on specific system procedures. The second study is in the planning stage.   Presentation/Publication:  Hickman, J. M., Rogers, W.A. & Fisk, A.D. (2003). Age-related effects of training on developing a system representation.  Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 47th Annual Meeting. Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Project Description Current Status/Findings Understanding Inferences Contact Person: Anne Adams [back to top] The goal of this study is to understand how people of different ages approach the task of understanding and evaluating short text passages. Data collection is underway. Project Description Current Status/Findings Virtual Keyboard Design Contact Person: Marita O'Brien [back to top]   Although entering text may seem like an ordinary and simple task, it can be quite complicated to do with the variety of devices that have been introduced into our everyday lives. We are interested in helping designers keep this task effortless by better understanding the factors involved in text entry when using a novel device. Study 1: We found that the compatibility between keyboard shape and input device facilitates good movement performance. Visual search performance was best on the Alphabetic arrangement across age groups and keyboard shapes. Letter arrangement affected visual search performance when the shape was familiar with that performance. Interestingly, older adults and younger adults differed in how shape affected their performance. Study 2:  Neither shape was faster, but results suggest that more salient features on one shape facilitated performance, particularly for older adults.   Presentation/Publications: O’Brien, M.A., Rogers, W. A., & Fisk, A. D. (October, 2006).  Text entry on a virtual keyboard: Evaluating shape and practice effects.  Proceedings of the 50th annual meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society,  San Francisco, CA. O’Brien, M.A., Rogers, W.A., & Fisk, A.D. (2005). Examining keyboard shape and arrangement effects for younger and older adults.  Proceedings of the 49th annual meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Orlando, FL.  O’Brien, M.A. (2004), Keyboard shape and arrangement effects on keyboard design elements. Proceedings of the 49th annual meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, New Orleans, LA.