We examined the effects of age on automatic and voluntary motor adjustments in pointing tasks. To this end, young (20–25 years) and middle-aged adults (48–62 years) were instructed to point at a target that could unexpectedly change its location (to the left or right) or its color (to green or red) during the movement. In the location change conditions, participants were asked to either adjust their pointing movement toward the new location (i.e., normal pointing) or in the opposite direction (i.e., anti-pointing). In the color change conditions, participants were instructed to adjust their movement to the left or right depending on the change in color. The results showed that in a large proportion of the anti-pointing trials, participants made two adjustments: an early initial automatic adjustment in the direction of the target shift followed by a late voluntary adjustment toward the opposite direction. It was found that the late voluntary adjustments were delayed for the middle-aged participants relative to the young participants. There were no age differences for the fast automatic adjustment in normal pointing, but the early adjustment in anti-pointing tended to be later in the middle-aged adults. Finally, the difference in the onset of early and late adjustments in anti-pointing adjustments was greater among the middle-aged adults. Hence, this study is the first to show that aging slows down voluntary goal-directed movement control processes to greater extent than the automatic stimulus-driven processes.
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Abundant HCI research exists on the many assistive technologies that provide help with everyday physical and cognitive tasks. However, while a purely assistive approach often casts aging people in passive roles, recent studies suggest that adults may be ‘flourishing’ way into advanced age, even though implicit ageist prejudices are difficult to eradicate. Negative age-related stereotypes are the hidden and yet urgent issue we address in this study. There is a clear opportunity for an anti-ageist perspective in HCI, an approach that we propose as complementary to assistive technologies: in addition to providing solutions for the aging population, we urgently call for designs about aging, to spark a conversation on age, raise awareness and ultimately contrast ageist stereotypes. We point at empathy as a key element to reconceptualize, at least in part, HCI’s contribution to research on aging. We present a design critique of two interactive pieces that, although not without flaws, suggest how future empathy-raising artifacts might be. Our analysis combines pragmatist aesthetics, interaction criticism and ludology, and yields four design tactics (recurring configurations of significant elements) that are generative in bringing about broader design implications towards a different, empathy-based concept of aging in HCI.
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Tallinn University in co-operation with Tartu University has conducted a four month long research on deinstitutionalisation policies, financed by the Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs, between August and November 2015. The research programme consisted of an international review on the experiences of seven selected European countries and on focus groups and individual interviews among Estonian stakeholders related to deinstitutionalisation and community based services in the field of disability care and mental health. Based on the research the international research group suggested a number of considerations for the Estonian Case. Some of the most relevant are reported in this Research note.
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