Impact of Technology on Successful Aging (Springer Series on the Societal Impact on Aging)

352 Pages·2003·18.45 MB·English

by  Neil Charness PhD

Societal Impact on Aging Series
Series Editor
K. Warner Schaie, PhD
Director, Gerontology Center
College of Health and Human Development
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA
2003 Impact of Technology on Successful Aging
Neil Charness and K. Warner Schaie, Editors
2002 Personal Control in Social and Life Course Contexts
Steve H. Zarit, Leonard I. Pearlin, and K. Warner Schaie, Editors
2002 Effective Health Behavior in Older Adults
K. Warner Schaie, Howard Leventhal, and Sherry L. Willis, Editors
2000 The Evolution of the Aging Self:
The Societal Impact on the Aging Process
K. Warner Schaie and Jon Hendricks, Editors
2000 Mobility and Transportation in the Elderly
K. Warner Schaie and Martin Pietrucha, Editors
1998 Impact of Work on Older Adults
K. Warner Schaie and Carmi Schooler, Editors
1997 Societal Mechanisms for Maintaining Competence
in Old Age
Sherry L. Willis, K. Warner Schaie, and Mark Hayward, Editors
1996 Older Adults' Decision-Making and the Law
Michael Smyer, K. Warner Schaie, and Marshall Kapp, Editors
1995 Adult Intergenerational Relations: Effects of Societal Change
Vern L. Bengtson, K. Warner Schaie, and Linda K. Burton, Editors
1993 Societal Impact on Aging: Historical Perspectives
K. Warner Schaie and W. Andrew Achenbaum, Editors
Neil Charness, PhD, is a Professor in the Psychology Department at
Florida State University and an Associate in the Pepper Institute on
Aging and Public Policy at Florida State. He received his undergradu-
ate honors BA degree at McGill University in 1965, and his MSc (1971)
and PhD (1974) at Carnegie Mellon University. He was an Assistant
Professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario, Canada, from 1974 to
1977, and then an Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor at the Univer-
sity of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, from 1977 to 1994. He spent one
sabbatical (1984-1985) at the Mental Performance and Aging lab at
the VA Outpatient Clinic in Boston and another at the University of
Victoria, British Columbia (1990-1991). He also spent a summer as a
Visiting Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development
and Education, Berlin (1993). His research interests concern aging and
technology use, particularly the role of input devices and computer
hardware and software interfaces, as well as age and expert performance
across the life span. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological
Association's Division 20, the American Psychological Society, the
Canadian Psychological Association, and the Gerontological Society
of America.
K. Warner Schaie, PhD, is the Evan Pugh Professor of Human
Development and Psychology and director of the Gerontology Center
at Pennsylvania State University. He also holds an appointment as
Affiliate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at the Univer-
sity of Washington. He has previously held professorial appointments
at the University of Nebraska, West Virginia University, and the Univer-
sity of Southern California. Dr. Schaie received his BA from the Uni-
versity of California at Berkeley and his MS and PhD from the University
of Washington, all in psychology. He also holds an honorary Dr. phil.
degree from the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany and an
honorary Doctor of Science degree from West Virginia University. He
is author or editor of 35 books, including the textbook Adult Development
and Aging (with S. L. Willis) and the Handbook of the Psychology of Aging
(with J. E. Birren), both of which are now in their fifth edition. He has
directed the Seattle Longitudinal Study of cognitive aging since 1956
and is the author of more than 250 journal articles and chapters on the
psychology of aging. Dr. Schaie is the recipient of the Robert W.
Kleemeier Award for Distinguished Research Contributions from the
Gerontological Society of America, the Distinguished Scientific Contri-
butions award from the American Psychological Association, and the
Lifetime Research Career award from the Mensa Research Foundation.
Impact of Technology
on Successful Aging
Neil Charness, PhD
K. Warner Schaie, PhD
Editors
Springer Publishing Company
Copyright © 2003 by Springer Publishing Company, Inc.
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Acquisitions Editor: Helvi Gold
Production Editor: J. Hurkin-Torres
Cover design by Joanne Honigman
03 04 05 06 07 / 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Impact of technology on successful aging / [editors] Neil Charness,
K. Warner Schaie.
p. cm. — (Societal impact on aging)
Edited proceedings of a conference held at the Pennsylvania State
University, October 8-9, 2001.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 0-8261-2403-8
1. Aging—Social aspects—Congresses. 2. Aged-Social conditions—
Congresses. 3. Technology and the aged—Congresses. 4. Technological
innovations—Social aspects—Congresses. 5. Cognition in old age.
I. Charness, Neil. II. Schaie, K. Warner (Klaus Warner), 1928-
III. Series.
HQ1061.139 2003
305.26—dc21
2003054207
Printed in the United States of America by Maple-Vail Book
Manufacturing Group.
Contents
Contributors vii
Preface ix
1 Technology Design, Usability, and Aging: 1
Human Factors Techniques and Considerations
Wendy A. Rogers and Arthur D. Fisk
Commentary: Access, Motivation, Ability, Design, and 15
Training: Necessary Conditions for Older Adult
Success with Technology
Neil Charness
Commentary: Is It all About Aging? 28
Technology and Aging in Social Context
Melissa A. Hardy and Chardie L. Baird
2 Human Factors and Aging: Identifying and 42
Compensating for Age-related Deficits in Sensory
and Cognitive Function
Frank Schieber
Commentary: Aging Effects on Vision: Impairment, 85
Variability, Self-Report, and Compensatory Change
Donald W. Kline
Commentary: Using Technology to Lower the Perceptual 100
and Cognitive Hurdles of Aging
James L. Fozard
3 The Impact of the Internet on Older Adults 113
SaraJ. Czaja and Chin Chin Lee
Commentary: Applying Research: 134
The NIHSeniorHealth.gov Project
Roger W. Morrell, Stephanie R. Dailey, and Gabriel K. Rousseau
Commentary: Social Aspects of Gerontechnology 162
John C. Thomas
V
vi Contents
4 Assistive Technology 177
William C. Mann
Commentary: Next Steps in Home Modification 188
and Assistive Technology Research
Laura N. Gitlin
Commentary: Assistive Technology: Potential and 203
Preconditions of Useful Applications
Heidrun Mollenkopf
5 Impact of Everyday Technology in the Home 215
Environment on Older Adults' Quality of Life
Hans-Werner Wahl and Heidrun Mollenkopf
Commentary: The Nested Context of Technology: 242
A Response to Wahl and Mollenkopf
RickJ. Scheldt
Commentary: Gerontechnology and the Home 251
Environment
Gloria M. Gutman
6 Technology and the Promise of Independent Living 262
for Adults: A Cognitive Perspective
Linda L. Liu and Denise C. Park
Commentary: Technology as Environmental Support 290
for Older Adults' Daily Activities
Daniel Morrow
Commentary: Using Technology to Foster Engagement 306
and Improve Health in Elderly Persons
Sarah Hall Gueldner and Susan J. Loeb
Author Index 321
Subject Index 331
Contributors
Chardie L. Baird Laura N. Gitlin, PhD
Florida State University Thomas Jefferson University
Pepper Institute on Aging and Jefferson College of Health
Public Policy Professions
Tallahassee, FL Department of Occupational
Therapy
Community and HomeCare
Sara Czaja, PhD
Research Division
University of Miami School
Philadelphia, PA
of Medicine
Department of Psychiatry and Sarah H. Gueldner, DSN, FAAN
Behavioral Sciences The Decker School of Nursing
Miami, FL State University of New York
Binghamton, NY
Stephanie R. Dailey, MA Gloria M. Gutman, PhD
National Institute on Aging Simon Fraser University
Office of Communications Gerontology Center
and Public Liaison Vancouver, Canada
Bethesda, MD
Melissa Hardy, PhD
Florida State University
Arthur D. Fisk Pepper Institute on Aging and
Georgia Institute of Technology Public Policy
School of Psychology Tallahassee, FL
Atlanta, GA
Donald W. Kline, PhD
The University of Calgary
James Fozard, PhD Department of Psychology and
Florida Gerontological Research Department of Surgery
and Training Services Calgary, Alberta
Palm Harbor, FL Canada
vii
viii Contributors
Chin Chin Lee Denise C. Park, PhD
University of Miami School University of Michigan
of Medicine Institute for Social Research
Department of Psychiatry and Ann Arbor, MI
Behavioral Sciences
Miami, FL Wendy Rogers, PhD
Georgia Institute of Technology
Linda L. Liu School of Psychology
University of Michigan Atlanta, GA
Institute for Social Research
Ann Arbor, MI Gabriel K. Rousseau, PhD
Scientific Applications
Susan J. Loeb, PhD, RN International Corporation
University of Delaware McLean, VA
School of Nursing
Newark, DE Rick Scheidt, PhD
Kansas State University
William Mann, PhD Department of Human
University of Florida Development and Family
Occupational Therapy Studies
Gainesville, FL Manhattan, KS
Heidrun Mollenkopf, Dr. phil. Frank Schieber, PhD
The German Center for University of South Dakota
Research on Aging Department of Psychology
University of Heidelberg Vermillion, SD
Heidelberg, Germany
John C. Thomas, PhD
Roger W. Morrell, PhD Manager, Knowledge
Director of Research Socialization
GeroTech Corporation IBM Research Hawthorne
Reston, VA Yorktown Heights, NY
Daniel G. Morrow, PhD Hans-Werner Wahl, Dr. phil.
University of Illinois at The German Center for
Urbana-Champaign Research on Aging
Aviation Human Factors Division University of Heidelberg
Savoy, IL Heidelberg, Germany
Preface
his is the fifteenth volume in a series on the broad topic of
T
"Societal Impact on Aging." The first five volumes of this series
were published by Erlbaum Associates under the series title
"Social Structure and Aging." The present volume is the tenth pub-
lished under the Springer Publishing Company imprint. It is the edit-
ed proceedings of a conference held at Pennsylvania State University,
October 8-9, 2001.
The series of Penn State Gerontology Center conferences originat-
ed from the deliberations of a subcommittee of the Committee on Life
Course Perspectives of the Social Science Research Council chaired by
Matilda White Riley in the early 1980s. That subcommittee was charged
with developing an agenda and mechanisms that would serve to
encourage communication between scientists who study societal struc-
tures that might affect the aging of individuals and those scientists who
are concerned with the possible effects of contextual influences on
individual aging. The committee proposed a series of conferences that
would systematically explore the interfaces between social structures
and behavior, and in particular, would identify mechanisms through
which society influences adult development. When the second editor
was named director of the Penn State Gerontology Center, he was
able to implement this conference program as one of the center's
major activities.
The previous fourteen volumes in this series have dealt with the soci-
etal impact on aging in psychological processes (Schaie & Schooler,
1989); age structuring in comparative perspective (Kertzer & Schaie,
1989); self-directedness and efficacy over the life span (Rodin, Schooler,
& Schaie, 1990); aging, health behaviors, and health outcomes (Schaie,
Blazer, & House, 1992); caregiving in families (Zarit, Pearlin, & Schaie,
1993); aging in historical perspective (Schaie & Achenbaum, 1993); adult
intergenerational relations (Bengtson, Schaie, & Burton, 1995); older
adults' decision making and the law (Smyer, Schaie, & Kapp, 1996); the
impact of social structures on decision making in the elderly (Willis,
ix