Older Adults
Younger AdultsAutomation
Trust in Automation
Contact Person: Katherine Olson
This project is investigating how older adults develop knowledge about their task environment and how the quality of their knowledge affects how they trust an automated aid. Previous research with younger adults suggests that lower quality knowledge can lead to inappropriate dependence and trust on an automated aid. However there is no research examining whether this finding extends to older adults.
Data collection is complete and data analysis is underway.
Effect of Workload on Automation Dependence
Contact Person: Sara McBride
Current literature suggests that older adults typically depend on automation to a greater degree because they experience greater mental workload as compared to younger adults. However, this claim has not been systematically investigated. In this study, we will manipulate mental workload so that participants either experience low, moderate, or high workload. Our investigation hopes to determine whether there are any age differences in terms of dependence across the three workload groups, as well as whether individuals change their dependence strategies over time.
Data collection is underway.
Healthcare
Human Factors Issues of Home Health Care Providers
Contact Person: Tracy Mitzner
As the older adult population rapidly grows and “aging in place” becomes more desirable and feasible, home health care is becoming an attractive alternative over traditional hospital based health care. Technological advances have made such home health care easier and available for a range of medical conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, and heart disease. However, homes are not designed as health care settings and medical equipment and devices are not necessarily designed for home use. Little research has been conducted in this area to explore what problems arise when health care takes place in a home setting. For this project we are performing an in-depth needs analysis to understand how human factors can successfully support home health care. We are interviewing Certified Nursing Assistants, Registered Nurses, Physical Therapists, and Occupational Therapists about the difficulties ands frustrations they encounter while providing their caregiving tasks. We are also asking them about their perceptions of older adults’ difficulties related to personal and health care. We will explore the sources of these difficulties as well as examine human factors interventions that can alleviate these issues and optimize the health care services that providers offer.
Robotics/Virtual Agents
Recognizing Facial Expressions of Virtual Agents and Robots
Contact Person: Jenay Beer
Traditionally, robots and virtual agents have been developed in the context of military and industry domains. However, more recent improvements in technology have allowed for agents to be developed for home and healthcare settings. Making better agents is not only about improving technology. It is crucial to understand issues related to social characteristics of agents that promote optimal interaction. Facial expressions are one of the most important mediums for communicating emotional state. The goal of this study is to better understand how people recognize and label emotions displayed by an agent.
Data collection is underway.
Dynamic Formation of Emotion in a Virtual Agent
Contact Person: Cory-Ann Smarr
The question is not whether intelligent machines can have any emotions, but whether machines can be intelligent without any emotions” (Minsky, 1988, p. 163). Emotions are important for not only human-human social interactions but also for those between human and agent. If a virtual agent or robot does not express emotion, it may be perceived as unapproachable or indifferent to human interaction. To encourage interaction, such as when a robot assists a person in the home, agents should display emotion that is recognizable to people. One way to display emotion is through facial expressions. The purpose of this study is to investigate age-related differences in how individuals recognize dynamic formation of emotion in a virtual agent.
Data collection is underway.
Technology Use
Age Differences in Technologies Used
Contact Person: Katherine Olson
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.
Aging in Place
Contact Person: Cara Bailey Fausset
We have conducted focus studies with older adults in the community to understand their needs in aging in place. This study was designed to inform us about the tasks that older adults must do to maintain their homes and the changes that older adults have made to their behaviors or to their homes to help overcome impediments to aging in place. Additionally, we asked about the company and product characteristics that lead an older adult to accept service providers and remodelers into their homes. The initial analysis reveals that older adults perform a wide range of home maintenance tasks. Furthermore, older adults described difficulties in performing these tasks but managed these difficulties through means such as modifying their behavior, cessation of the task, outsourcing the task, or using tools/technologies to assist them.
Technology Use by Older Adults
Contact Person: Tracy Mitzner
Technology has the potential to improve the quality of life of older adults and to provide support for age-associated declines. We conducted focus groups to better understand the needs and preferences of older adults concerning technology and technology training. The focus groups were conducted at three sites: Georgia Institute of Technology, Florida State University, and University of Miami. We asked 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.
Fundamentals of Aging
Age Differences in the Effects of Poor Contrast on Reading Strategies
Contact Person:Tracy Mitzner
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.
Knowledge Modification
Contact Person: Anne Adams
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.
Understanding Inferences
Contact Person: Anne Adams
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.
Display Design
Designing More Effective Visual Displays
Contact Person: Cara Bailey Fausset
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.
