An evaluation of performance by older persons on a simulated telecommuting task

Health effects of immediate telework introduction during the COVID-19 era in Japan: A cross-sectional study

Background

Telework has been widely discussed in several fields; however, there is a lack of research on the health aspects of teleworking. The current study was conducted to determine the health effects of teleworking during an emergency statement as evidence for future policy development.

Method

This was a cross-sectional study in which we administered an online questionnaire to 5,214 general workers (response rate = 36.4%) from June 2020 to August 2020. Based on working methods during the pandemic, workers were categorized into the office group (n = 86) and telework group (n = 1597), and we characterized their demographics, changes in lifestyle, telework status, physical symptoms, and mental health.

Results

The results showed that the workers’ residence, marital status, management positions, and employee status affected the choice of the work method. During the emergency, teleworkers experienced more changes in their habits than office workers. In terms of exercise habits, 67.0% of the individuals belonging to the office-telework (OT) group exercised less. Approximately half of the teleworkers were satisfied with their telework, and those in the OT group were less satisfied with their telework than those in the telework-telework (TT) group, and they reported an increase in both working hours and meeting hours. Work-family conflict was more pronounced in the TT group than in the two other groups. Only 13.2% of individuals did not experience any stress in the past 30 days, and all three groups showed varying degrees of anxiety and depressive tendencies. In addition, all teleworkers experienced adverse physical symptoms before and after the emergency.

Conclusion

Health issues associated with teleworking should be given adequate attention.

Information and Communication Technology Use in Older Adults: A Unidirectional or Bi-directional Association with Cognitive Function?

Previous research on older adults' information and communication technology (ICT) use has shown that cognitive function is linked with ICT use; however, the direction of influence has been yet to be determined. The current study examined the temporal sequence of ICT use and cognitive performance. Using three waves (2013, 2015, and 2017) from the National Health and Aging Trends Study, a total of 3,904 community-dwelling older adults aged 65 and above were selected for the analysis. Two cognitive domains were considered: episodic memory and executive function. Reciprocal 4-year lagged associations between ICT use and each cognitive domain were examined, controlling for covariates (age, gender, education, race/ethnicity, and depression). Greater use of ICT was significantly associated with memory performance, B (SE) = .19 (.01), p < .001, and executive function, B (SE) = .26 (.01), p < .001, in following years. Reciprocally, episodic memory predicted ICT use, B (SE) = .02 (.01), p < .001, 2 years later. However, the cross-lagged effect of executive functioning on ICT use was not significant, B (SE) = .00 (.01), p = .14. These results suggest the direction of the association between ICT use and cognitive performance might vary depending on the cognitive domain.

Travel Website Atmospheres Inducing Older Travelers' Familiarity: The Moderating Role of Cognitive Age

In the environment in which an increasing number of older travelers are participating in online tourism platforms, for older travelers who face multiple barriers in using e-commerce, it is essential to identify factors promoting older travelers' website usage for their well-being and sustainable travel industry. This study aims to identify the key factors of website atmosphere for enhancing older travelers' familiarity, investigate the relationship between older adults' website familiarity and revisit intention, and test the moderating role of cognitive age. A web-based survey was conducted, and the sample consisted of 305 US residents 50 years of age and older who had experienced travel websites. The results indicated that three subdimensions of older travelers' website familiarity-informativeness, effectiveness, and entertainment-positively influence their website familiarity. Additionally, the impact of informativeness on website familiarity is stronger for travelers who identify as younger than their chronological age. Moreover, older travelers' familiarity with a website improves their revisit intention. The current study found not only significant travel website atmosphere factors to boost older travelers' participation in online tourism platforms but also significant older travelers' groups depending on their cognitive age perception to magnify the effect of website atmosphere.

Quantitative Analysis Of User Interfaces For Large Electronic Home Appliances And Mobile Devices Based On Lifestyle Categorization Of Older Users

Background/Study Context: The increasing longevity and health of older users as well as aging populations has created the need to develop senior-oriented product interfaces. This study aims to find user interface (UI) priorities according to older user groups based on their lifestyle and develop quality of UI (QUI) models for large electronic home appliances and mobile products.

METHODS

A segmentation table designed to show how older users can be categorized was created through a review of the literature to survey 252 subjects with a questionnaire. Factor analysis was performed to extract six preliminary lifestyle factors, which were then used for subsequent cluster analysis. The analysis resulted in four groups. Cross-analysis was carried out to investigate which characteristics were included in the groups. Analysis of variance was then applied to investigate the differences in the UI priorities among the user groups for various electronic devices. Finally, QUI models were developed and applied to those electronic devices.

RESULTS

Differences in UI priorities were found according to the four lifestyles ("money-oriented," "innovation-oriented," "stability- and simplicity-oriented," and "innovation- and intellectual-oriented"). Twelve QUI models were developed for four different lifestyle groups associated with different products. Three washers and three smartphones were used as an example for testing the QUI models.

CONCLUSION

The UI differences of the older user groups by the segmentation in this study using several key (i.e., demographic, socioeconomic, and physical-cognitive) variables are distinct from earlier studies made by a single variable. The differences in responses clearly indicate the benefits of integrating various factors of older users, rather than single variable, in order to design and develop more innovative and better consumer products in the future. The results of this study showed that older users with a potentially high buying power in the future are likely to have higher satisfaction when selecting products customized for their lifestyle. Designers could also use the results of UI evaluation for older users based on their lifestyle before developing products through QUI modeling. This approach would save time and costs.

Job Crafting: Older Workers' Mechanism for Maintaining Person-Job Fit

Aging at work is a dynamic process. As individuals age, their motives, abilities and values change as suggested by life-span development theories (Lang and Carstensen, 2002; Kanfer and Ackerman, 2004). Their growth and extrinsic motives weaken while intrinsic motives increase (Kooij et al., 2011), which may result in workers investing their resources in different areas accordingly. However, there is significant individual variability in aging trajectories (Hedge et al., 2006). In addition, the changing nature of work, the evolving job demands, as well as the available opportunities at work may no longer be suitable for older workers, increasing the likelihood of person-job misfit. The potential misfit may, in turn, impact how older workers perceive themselves on the job, which leads to conflicting work identities. With the traditional job redesign approach being a top-down process, it is often difficult for organizations to take individual needs and skills into consideration and tailor jobs for every employee (Berg et al., 2010). Therefore, job crafting, being an individualized process initiated by employees themselves, can be a particularly valuable mechanism for older workers to realign and enhance their demands-abilities and needs-supplies fit. Through job crafting, employees can exert personal agency and make changes to the task, social and cognitive aspects of their jobs with the goal of improving their work experience (Wrzesniewski and Dutton, 2001). Building on the Life Span Theory of Control (Heckhausen and Schulz, 1995), we posit that job crafting, particularly cognitive crafting, will be of increasing value as employees age. Through reframing how they think of their job and choosing to emphasize job features that are personally meaningful, older workers can optimize their resources to proactively redesign their jobs and maintain congruent, positive work identities.

Older Adults and Attitutdes Towards Computers: Have they Changed with Recent Advances in Technology?

Although the use of computers is expanding in the overall population, for older adults there still remains a “digital divide”. Development of strategies to help insure that older people have equal opportunities to access computer technology depends on understanding why they have lower adoption rates. This paper examines changes in attitudes towards computers over time among a sample of 745 adults ranging in age from 18 — 75 yrs. Attitudes towards computers were assessed using the Attitudes Towards Computers Questionnaire across two time periods: 1994-1997 and 2000-2004. Over time, participants rated computers as less dehumanizing and reported an increased belief that computers were equally important to both genders. There were also age groups differences in ratings of comfort, efficacy, and control. The older adults reported less comfort, competence with computers. Over time, perceptions of having control over computers increased over time for the younger people but not for the middle-aged and older people. Understanding individual differences in attitudes towards computers is important to the design of intervention strategies such as training programs.

A Household Internet Adoption Model Based on Integration of Technology Acceptance Model, Theory of Planned Behavior, and Uses and Gratifications Theory

Existing theories in the technology acceptance and Internet adoption fields have examined the adoption among users, which can be classified into two categories: technological and behavioral perspectives. In this paper, the authors propose an integrated household Internet adoption model combining both perspectives to provide a holistic view on the subject. For this purpose, the three primal models of technology acceptance and usage behavior, the technology acceptance model (TAM), theory of planned behavior (TPB), and uses and gratifications theory (U&G), are selected to construct the integrated model. In this way, based on the dimensions of the studied theories, specific constructs are defined to integrate these dimensions according to their similarities and appropriateness. The relationship between the proposed model’s constructs are then hypothesized based on the literature findings, and examined in a case study of household Internet adoption among Iranian households. Also, structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to illustrate the relationships’ coefficients between proposed model constructs, and derived implications for the Internet adoption among Iranian households are discussed based on the research findings.

Toward a psychological science of advanced technology design for older adults

OBJECTIVES

Technology represents advances in knowledge that change the way humans perform tasks. Ideally, technology will make the task easier, more efficient, safer, or perhaps more pleasurable. Unfortunately, new technologies can sometimes make a task more difficult, slower, dangerous, or perhaps more frustrating. Older adults interact with a variety of technologies in the course of their daily activities and thus products should be designed to be used by people of varying ages.

METHODS

In this article, we provide an overview of what psychology has to offer to the design of technology-from understanding what people need, to identifying their preferences for design characteristics, and to defining their capabilities and limitations that will influence technology interactions.

RESULTS

We identify how research in the field of psychology and aging has advanced understanding of technology interactions and how research on technology interactions can inform theories of aging.

DISCUSSION

Design for aging involves understanding the unique capabilities and limitations of older adults; identifying their needs, preferences, and desires for technology in their lives; and involving them in the design process.

TRAINING OLDER WORKERS FOR TECHNOLOGY-BASED EMPLOYMENT

An increasingly aging workforce and advances in technology are changing work environments and structures. The continued employability of older adults, particularly those of lower socioeconomic status (SES), requires them to participate in training programs to ensure their competence in today's workplace. Focus groups with 37 unemployed adults (51-76 years old) were conducted to gather information about barriers and obstacles for returning to work, training needs and formats, work experiences, and perceptions of the characteristics of an ideal job. Overall, results indicated that participants experienced age discrimination and lack of technology skills. They also expressed a desire to receive additional training on technology and a preference for classroom training.

The Employability of Older Workers as Teleworkers: An Appraisal of Issues and an Empirical Study

The aging of the population and, concomitantly, of the workforce has a number of important implications for governments, businesses, and workers. In this article, we examine the prospects for the employability of older workers as home-based teleworkers. This alternative work could accommodate many of the needs and preferences of older workers and at the same time benefit organizations. However, before telework can be considered a viable work option for many older workers there are a number of issues to consider, including the ability of older workers to adapt to the technological demands that are typically associated with telework jobs and managerial attitudes about older workers and about telework. Through an integrated examination of these and other issues, our goal is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the challenges associated with employing older workers as teleworkers. We also present findings from a questionnaire study that assessed managers' perceptions of worker attributes desirable for telework and how older workers compare to younger workers on these attributes. The sample included 314 managers with varying degrees of managerial experience from a large variety of companies in the United States. The results presented a mixed picture with respect to the employability of older workers as teleworkers, and strongly suggested that less experienced managers would be more resistant to hiring older people as teleworkers. We conclude with a number of recommendations for improving the prospects for employment of older workers for this type of work arrangement.

Aging and human performance

OBJECTIVES

I identify major theoretical and practical contributions to aging and human performance as reflected primarily in the pages of Human Factors.

BACKGROUND

Populations worldwide are aging. True experimental work on aging is not possible because age levels cannot be manipulated. Sophisticated theoretical frameworks and modeling techniques are required to reach valid inferences about age effects and age changes.

METHOD

Citation analysis was used to identify articles in Human Factors dealing with age or aging and to rank them for citation impact.

RESULTS

Special issues on aging were followed by increased publication rates for articles on age or aging, particularly in the 1990s. Most-cited articles deal primarily with age and driving.

CONCLUSIONS

Applied contributions rely on improved measurement of performance and on methodological advances, including simulation and modeling. Design changes that provide environmental support for declining cognitive, perceptual, and psychomotor abilities can serve as a powerful intervention for maintaining and improving older adult performance. Training is also a robust way to improve performance at both the basic ability level and the level of task performance. Human factors specialists can improve quality of life for an aging population.

APPLICATIONS

Guidelines for older users are now being developed by standards bodies and are implemented in domains such as Web design. Much of the focus of human factors research has been on improving efficiency in the performance of aging adults in the workforce, but reducing errors and increasing comfort and satisfaction in health-related activities should receive greater attention.

Investigating the Roles of Knowledge and Cognitive Abilities in Older Adult Information Seeking on the Web

This study investigated the influences of knowledge, particularly Internet, Web browser, and search engine knowledge, as well as cognitive abilities on older adult information seeking on the Internet. The emphasis on aspects of cognition was informed by a modeling framework of search engine information-seeking behavior. Participants from two older age groups were recruited: twenty people in a younger-old group (ages 60-70) and twenty people in an older-old group (ages 71-85). Ten younger adults (ages 18-39) served as a comparison group. All participants had at least some Internet search experience. The experimental task consisted of six realistic search problems, all involving information related to health and well-being and which varied in degree of complexity. The results indicated that though necessary, Internet-related knowledge was not sufficient in explaining information-seeking performance, and suggested that a combination of both knowledge and key cognitive abilities is important for successful information seeking. In addition, the cognitive abilities that were found to be critical for task performance depended on the search problem's complexity. Also, significant differences in task performance between the younger and the two older age groups were found on complex, but not on simple problems. Overall, the results from this study have implications for instructing older adults on Internet information seeking and for the design of Web sites.

A multilevel modeling approach to examining individual differences in skill acquisition for a computer-based task

This article explores the role of age, cognitive abilities, prior experience, and knowledge in skill acquisition for a computer-based simulated customer service task. Fifty-two participants aged 50-80 performed the task over 4 consecutive days following training. They also completed a battery that assessed prior computer experience and cognitive abilities. The data indicated that overall quality and efficiency of performance improved with practice. The predictors of initial level of performance and rate of change in performance varied according to the performance parameter assessed. Age and fluid intelligence predicted initial level and rate of improvement in overall quality, whereas crystallized intelligence and age predicted initial e-mail processing time, and crystallized intelligence predicted rate of change in e-mail processing time over days. We discuss the implications of these findings for the design of intervention strategies.

Factors predicting the use of technology: findings from the Center for Research and Education on Aging and Technology Enhancement (CREATE)

The successful adoption of technology is becoming increasingly important to functional independence. The present article reports findings from the Center for Research and Education on Aging and Technology Enhancement (CREATE) on the use of technology among community-dwelling adults. The sample included 1,204 individuals ranging in age from 18-91 years. All participants completed a battery that included measures of demographic characteristics, self-rated health, experience with technology, attitudes toward computers, and component cognitive abilities. Findings indicate that the older adults were less likely than younger adults to use technology in general, computers, and the World Wide Web. The results also indicate that computer anxiety, fluid intelligence, and crystallized intelligence were important predictors of the use of technology. The relationship between age and adoption of technology was mediated by cognitive abilities, computer self-efficacy, and computer anxiety. These findings are discussed in terms of training strategies to promote technology adoption.

Factors predicting the use of technology: findings from the Center for Research and Education on Aging and Technology Enhancement (CREATE)

The successful adoption of technology is becoming increasingly important to functional independence. The present article reports findings from the Center for Research and Education on Aging and Technology Enhancement (CREATE) on the use of technology among community-dwelling adults. The sample included 1,204 individuals ranging in age from 18-91 years. All participants completed a battery that included measures of demographic characteristics, self-rated health, experience with technology, attitudes toward computers, and component cognitive abilities. Findings indicate that the older adults were less likely than younger adults to use technology in general, computers, and the World Wide Web. The results also indicate that computer anxiety, fluid intelligence, and crystallized intelligence were important predictors of the use of technology. The relationship between age and adoption of technology was mediated by cognitive abilities, computer self-efficacy, and computer anxiety. These findings are discussed in terms of training strategies to promote technology adoption.