Technology and Older Adults Essay -- Research Age Essays

Technology and onetime(a) Adults It is commonly believed that former(a) people ar uncomfortable with new forms of engineering science and that they are more resistant to using technology than are younger people. This belief often places older people at a disadvant get along, because designers fail to consider older people as a potential user group when designing technology, both software and hardware (Parsons, Terner, & Kersley, 1994). Another misconception is that the elderly are unable to learn new skills. Older people are frequently overlooked when opportunities for technology training or retraining are made available, however, a study of aging and cognitive abilities concluded that decreases in intelligence are modest until people acquire their eighties. Even at the age of 80, fewer than half of the individuals showed measurable decreases (Holt, 1998). And passive another misconception is the belief that the elderly are set in their ways, that they are not open to chang e or capable of creativity. Research, again, has disproved such claims, demonstrate that creativity is a personality trait and does not depend upon age (Ibid.). What then has led to these public misconceptions? Part of the problem could be a trait called cautiousness. Cautiousness in older adult problem-solving is one of the well-nigh frequently mentioned procedure-limiting factors and is described as a hesitancy about reservation responses that may be incorrect (Salthouse, 1991). The research finding is that older adults do not perform as well as younger adults because older adults do not have as much success in solving logical problems, spatial ability problems, inductive reasoning problems, or practical problems. Younger adults tend to show a better performance if the task requi... ...and cautiousness in decision A review of the literature. human Development, 19, pp. 220-233. Parsons, H.M., Terner, J., and Kearsley, G. (1994). Design of remote control units for senior s, Experimental Aging Research, 20, pp. 211-218. Salthouse, T. A.. (1991). Theoretical perspectives on cognitive aging, Hillsdale, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. White, Heidi McConnell, Eleanor Clipp, Elizabeth Bynum, Louise Teague, Carmen Navas, Luis Craven, Sara and Halbrecht, Herbert. (1999). Surfing the net in later life A review of the literature and pilot study of computer use and feeling of life. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 18(3), pp. 358-378. Zeithaml, V. A. and Gilly, M. C. (1987). Characteristics affecting the acceptance of retailing technologies A equation of elderly and nonelderly consumers, Journal of Retailing, 63, p. 4948.