Table Of ContentCommunication,
Technology
and Aging
Opportunities and Challenges
for the Future
Neil Charness, PhD, received his BA (1969) in Psychology from McGill University, and his MS
(1971) and PhD (1974) in Psychology from Carnegie Mellon University. He was an Assistant
Professor of Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University (1974–1977) and a Professor of Psychol-
ogy and Gerontology at the University of Waterloo (1977–1994). He is currently a Professor of
Psychology at the Florida State University, and a Research Associate at the Pepper Institute on
Aging and Public Policy. His current research interests focus on the topics of aging and expert
performance across the life span, and age and human factors as related to technology use. He has
held grants concerned with these topics from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of
Canada, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Aging
Research Network (Canada), the DAAD (Germany), the Retirement Research Foundation (USA),
and the National Institute on Aging (USA). He is a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological
Association, The American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and
the Gerontological Society of America.
Denise C. Park, PhD, is Professor of Psychology and Senior Research Scientist at the University
of Michigan. She is Director of the Center for Applied Cognitive Research on Aging, which is
funded by the National Institute on Aging. Dr. Park received her PhD in 1977 at the State
University of New York at Albany. She came to the University of Michigan in 1995 from the
University of Georgia, where she was Professor of Psychology and Director of the Applied
Cognitive Aging Center. She is past president of the Division of Adult Development and Aging
of the American Psychological Association, past chair of the NIH Mental Disorders of Aging
Study Section, and recently finished a term in the APA Council of Representatives, where she
was secretary of the Women's Caucus. She was Chair of the Board of Scientific Affairs of the
APA from 1999-2000 and is Associate Editor of The American Psychologist.
Dr. Park directs a large and active research program at the University of Michigan, funded
primarily by multiple grants from the National Institute on Aging. Her work is highly collab-
orative as she works with faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students from Psychology,
the Medical School and the Alcohol Research Center. Her research interests include: memory
and aging, functional neuroimaging of aging and memory, cognition in medical settings and
aging, cognition aging and culture, social cognition and aging, fibromyalgia and memory func-
tion, and alcoholism, aging and memory.
Bernhard A. Sabel, PhD, received his doctorate in Psychology from Clark University in 1994.
He was a postdoctoral research fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a research
scientist at the University of Munich. He served as a visiting neuroscientist at Massachusetts
General Hospital, Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sabel was also head
of the Center for Neuroscience Innovation and Technology. He served as a visiting professor in
the Department of Psychology at Princeton University from 1998–1999. Since 1997 he has
been the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience. Dt. Sabel's
current research interests include brain plasticity and recovery of function, particularly in the
visual system and training-software development for patients with visual field deficits.
Communication,
Technology
and Aging
Opportunities and Challenges
for the Future
Neil Charness, PHD
Denise C. Parks, PHD
Bernhard A. Sabel, PHD
Editors
Springer Publishing Company
Copyright © 2001 by Springer Publishing Company, Inc.
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, without the prior permission of Springer Publishing Company, Inc.
Springer Publishing Company, Inc.
536 Broadway
New York, NY 10012-3955
Acquisitions Editor: Bill Tucker
Production Editor: Pamela Lankas
Cover design by Susan Hauley
01 02 03 04 05/5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication-Data
Communication, technology and aging : opportunities and challenges for the
future/Neil C harness, Denise C. Parks, Bernhard A. Sabel, editors.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8261-1372-9
1. Aged—Communication. 2, Communicative disorders in old age. 3.
Communication—Technological innovations. I. Charness, Neil. II. Parks,
Denise C. III. Sabel, Bernhard A.
HQ1061.C624 2001
305.26 dc21
00-03139
Printed in Canada
Contents
Contributors vii
Preface ix ix
Part I Overview
1 Aging and Communication: Human Factors Issues 1
Neil Charness
2 Over-Accommodations and Under-Accommodations to Aging 30
Susan Kemper
3 Design Challenges Associated with Longevity: The View From
Industry 47
Craig Spiezle and Gary Moulton
4 The Internet and Older Adults: Design Challenges and
Opportunities 60
Sara J. Czaja and Chin Chin Lee
Part II Communication and Sociocultural Issues
5 Culture, Aging, and Cognitive Aspects of Communication 81 81
Trey Hedden and Denise C. Park
6 Aging, Sensory Loss, and Social Functioning 108
Hans-Werner Wahl and Clemens Tesch-Römer
V
vi Contents
7 The Impact of Internet Use Over Time on Older Adults: A
Field Experiment 127 127
Karra L. Bikson and Tom K. Bikson
Part III Training and Compensation
8 Aging, Communication, and Interface Design 153
Lila F. Laux
9 Face Memory Skill Acquisition 169
Reinhold Kliegl, Doris Philipp, Matthias Luckner, and
Ralf Th. Krampe
10 A Systems Approach for Training Older Adults to Use
Technology 187
Wendy A. Rogers, Regan H. Campbell, and Richard Pak
11 Aging, Vision, and Brain Plasticity: Restoring Lost Visual
Functions by Computer-Based Training 209
Dorothe A. Poggel, Tilman Schulte, Erich Kasten, and
Bernhard A. Sabel
Index 227
Contributors
Karra L. Bikson, MA Trey Hedden, TMA
Department of Social Welfare Department of Psychology
UCLA School of Public Policy and University of Michigan
Social Research Ann Arbor, MI
Los Angeles, CA
Tora K. Bikson, PhD Erich Kasten, PhD
Senior Scientist Institute of Medical Psychology
Behavioral Sciences Department Otto-von-Guericke University of
The RAND Corporation Magdeburg
Santa Monica, CA Magdeburg, Germany
Regan H. Campbell, MS
School of Psychology Susan Kemper, PhD
Georgia Institute of Technology Gerontology Center
Atlanta, GA University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS
Sara J. Czaja, PhD
Department of Psychiatry and
Behavioral Sciences Reinhold Kliegl, PhD
University of Miami School of Department of Psychology
Medicine University of Potsdam
Miami, FL Potsdam, Germany
vii
viii Contributors
Ralf Th. Krampe, PhD Dorothe A. Poggel, MA
Max Planck Institute for Human Institute of Medical Psychology
Development Otto-von-Guericke University of
Center for Lifespan Psychology Magdeburg
Berlin, Germany Magdeburg, Germany
Lila F. Laux, PhD Wendy A. Rogers, PhD
Human Factors Engineering School of Psychology
US WEST IT Georgia Institute of Technology
Denver, CO Atlanta, GA
Chin Chin Lee, MS Tilman Schulte, MA
Department of Psychiatry and Institute of Medical Psychology
Behavioral Sciences Otto-von-Guericke University of
University of Miami School of Magdeburg
Medicine Magdeburg, Germany
Miami, FL
Craig D. Spiezle, MBA
Matthias Luckner, PhD AgeLight LLC
Department of Psychology Clyde Hill, WA
University of Potsdam
Potsdam, Germany Dr. Clemens Tesch-Romer
Director
Gary M. Moulton German Centre of Gerontology
Group Project Manager Berlin, Germany
Microsoft
Redmond, WA Prof. Dr. Hans-Werner Wahl
The German Center for Research
Richard Pak, BS on Aging at the University of
School of Psychology Heidelberg
Georgia Institute of Technology Heidelberg, Germany
Atlanta, GA
Dr. Doris Philipp
Department of Psychology
University of Potsdam
Potsdam, Germany
Preface
This volume is based on the May 1999 Ann Arbor conference sponsored by
the German-American Academic Council (GAAC) Foundation and orga-
nized by the University of Michigan, the National Institute on Aging, and
the Fraunhofer Institute of Biotechnology. The goals of the GAAC are to
promote linkages between German and American Scientists, and in partic-
ular, to foster collaboration among junior (developing) scientists, both in
academic and industry settings. To this end, a series of conferences on
topics concerned with aging were planned and two were implemented. The
Ann Arbor Conference dealt with the topic of Aging and Communication,
with an emphasis on the role of newly developing communication technology.
No volume can adequately convey the flavor of that conference in terms
of the very stimulating interchange of ideas between senior and junior
scientists. Nonetheless, our hope is to provide a glimpse into that process
via the state-of-the-art reviews and empirical data provided by the contrib-
utors. A unique feature of this volume is that we have a mix of authors from
Germany and the United States, as well as from industry and the academy.
Thus, both theoretical and practical viewpoints are well represented as are
the perspectives of two different cultures.
Chapters are divided into three sections. The chapters in the first section
provide overviews of basic issues in aging and communication from the
perspectives of academia and industry. Charness provides an introduction
to the basic concepts in the fields of aging, communication, and human
factors. Kemper identifies some of the barriers to aging and communica-
tion, focusing on over- and under-accommodations to aging in speech and
ix
