Home robotic devices for older adults: Opportunities and concerns

an article by Inbal Deutsch, Hadas Erel, Michal Paz and Oren Zuckerman (Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, Israel) and Guy  Hoffman (Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA) published in Computers in Human Behavior Volume 98 (September 2019)

Highlights

• Older adults' attitudes and emotional reactions toward robotic devices were evaluated.
• Specific robot features related to appearance, behavior and function affect acceptance..
• Older adults' user needs should be addressed in the robot's design.
• Concrete design guidelines for robotic devices targeting older adults are suggested.

Abstract

Robotic devices for older adults are becoming a reality.

New robots are being introduced for the growing subpopulation of healthy older adults, with an emphasis on supporting the positive aspects of aging.

In order to inform the design and implementation of such robots, the relevant needs and concerns of this population should be studied, mapped, and translated into recommendations. We present a qualitative study of thirty cognitively-intact older adults, evaluating their attitudes and emotional reactions towards different types of home robotic devices.

Interview analysis of participants reactions to videos of six devices uncovered four user needs that can be threatened by the introduction of home robots:

• the need for independence,
• the need for control,
• the fear of being replaced, and
• the need for authenticity.

Furthermore, results reveal that cognitively-intact older adults are willing to adopt robotic devices into their homes, contingent upon their preferences and concerns being addressed. We provide recommendations regarding how researchers and designers of home robots can better address the user needs of healthy older adults by leveraging aspects of the robot's function, speech, appearance, size, proactivity, and mobility.

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Scientists unravel secrets of ‘superagers’

an article by Nicola Davis published in the Guardian

Researchers find elderly people with high cognitive function have more of a certain type of brain cell


Researchers have spent years studying superagers in an attempt to understand what sets them apart. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

“Superagers” have long puzzled scientists, but now researchers say they are unpicking why some people live beyond 80 – and still appear to be in fine fettle, with cognitive capacities on a par with adults decades younger.

Researchers have spent years studying superagers in an attempt to understand what sets the senior citizens apart.

“It’s not so long ago that we thought the only trajectory there was was to get old and senile,” said Prof Emily Rogalski, from Northwestern University, speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Austin, Texas.

“We need to push the envelope and see what is possible in older age and how did [people] get there.”

Researchers say studies show that superagers appear to be more resilient to the slings and arrows of life, and are more extroverted and less neurotic.

But they have also made another discovery. Looking at the brains of 10 superagers after they died, Rogalski said they discovered these individuals have more of a certain type of brain cell known as Von Economo neurons than average elderly individuals.

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Why Life Seems to Speed Up over Time, and How to Slow It Down Again

a post by Paul Ratner for the Big Think blog

When you are young, time often passes quite slowly. Each birthday is a monumental occasion. Long lazy summers seem to never end. We remember trying to make the clock hands move faster with our minds as we sat bored in class. But as we grow older, life seems to speed up. Birthdays aren’t as big a deal. You’d almost rather not even notice them as you feel like you're barreling towards old age. Why does it feel like this? Is time really moving faster somehow?

A research team from the University of Kansas ran a study to understand this phenomenon. They tested the theory, first proposed by philosopher Douglas Hofstadter, that time appears to speed up because we start grouping distinct individual experiences into larger “chunks”. When we are young we have many big moments, experiencing things for the first time. So going to a park could be quite a big deal, with many memorable sensations there. But as you grow older, going to that park offers fewer and fewer new experiences. You start collapsing them into memory “chunks,” putting everything that happened simply under “a walk in the park” - making the span of time feel brief.

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