Older workers need not be left behind by technology

By Beth Azar
Monitor staff

We?ve all heard stories about elderly, stodgy characters who refuse to learn to use a computer, despise e-mail and hang up on answering machines.

And, yet, older people are not more likely to shun new technology than young people are, research finds. Rather, they aren?t as quick to learn new skills, so may need specialized training to master a new program.

Indeed, despite declining cognitive abilities (see article, page 23), with proper instruction older workers learn how to use new technology?in particular, computers?just as accurately as young people, research shows.

'With properly designed instruction, there?s no reason why they can?t learn and be active users of new technology at home and in the workplace,' says Roger Morrell, PhD, assistant director of the University of Georgia?s Gerontology Center.

Study after study finds that older people?even the very old?are no less interested in using new technology than younger people. However, fewer older adults use computers and other high-tech devices, such as automatic teller machines (ATMs) and online library catalogs, according to studies by researchers such as psychologist Wendy Rogers, PhD, and her colleagues at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The barrier isn?t an inability to learn how to use the technology, Rogers and others find, but often it?s a lack of access and proper instruction. With ATMs, for example, Rogers and her colleagues find that many older adults who don?t use the machines would use them if they received instruction. The same is true for online library catalogs, the researchers found in a sample of 521 people ages 25 to 64. Although all age groups reported being equally familiar with the catalog, older users said they were less comfortable using it, and would like tutoring on its use.

Indeed, older adults performed simple search tasks as well as younger adults, but were somewhat less efficient in their technique, Rogers and her colleagues found. And they had much more trouble than younger adults with complicated searches that required them to use search terms such as 'and' and 'or,' as in 'Find a book written by either John Grisham or Tom Clancy.'

But older people?even the very old?are interested in learning how to use new technology, Morrell and his colleagues find. In a group of people between ages 58 and 91, the greatest barrier to using computers and the World Wide Web was a lack of training and access, they found.

'For the noncomputer users, we found they were not using because they didn?t know what they could do with computers and they didn?t have the opportunity to use them,' says Morrell, who is also a research associate with the University of Michigan?s Center for Applied Cognitive Research on Aging.

Instructional format is critical to teaching older people how to use new technology. Simple, concrete and active instruction is superior to more cognitively demanding instruction that includes extraneous background information about how a piece of equipment works, research finds. These techniques benefit young people just as well, says Morrell. But without such strategies, older people would find it harder than younger people to master new technologies, says University of Miami aging researcher Sara Czaja, PhD.

'Older adults have more trouble disregarding irrelevant information,' says Morrell. 'And because they have reduced working memory capacity, providing more information may interfere with their ability to process the critical information.'

Older people who receive simple instructions learn faster and retain more knowledge over time, find Morrell and his colleagues, including Denise Park, PhD, of the University of Michigan. Illustrated instructions, which provide people an opportunity to practice as they go, also seem to be superior to text-only instruction, they find.

In one study, for example, they found that, although older people say they prefer text instructions over illustrated instructions, they learned more from instructions that were composed of both text and illustrations.

Once older adults acquire knowledge, they can use it just as well as younger adults?it just takes them longer, Rogers and her colleagues find.

In one study, she and Kristen Gilbert, PhD, at the University of Montevallo in Alabama, examined how well people could form and use mental models.

For example, to work on the Internet efficiently, people must create a mental model, or map, of where they are and where they?ve been. Gilbert and Rogers asked participants to learn where a group of buildings were in relationship to each other. They tested their knowledge by having them give directions from one building to another.

It took older adults?80 people between ages 60 and 79?more practice to acquire a mental model of the buildings than younger adults?80 people ages 18 to 31. But once the older adults acquired the model, they utilized it as effectively as younger participants, says Rogers.

Because it takes older adults longer to learn new tasks, it may be best to train older adults and younger adults separately, says Florida State University?s Neil Charness, PhD, who studies cognitive aging. Anecdotal evidence finds that older people become frustrated and distracted if younger colleagues are picking up on a task faster, and that younger people tend to get bored if instructors have to spend more time with older colleagues.

'You can teach old dogs new tricks; it just takes a little longer to do it,' says Charness.

?Beth Azar