老年人电脑使用研究综述

Computer Use by Older Adults:a Literature Review

随着老年人口增加,中国已进入人口老龄化社会,使用电脑的老年人数量日渐增多,老年人电脑使用成为新的研究热点。概述了老年人使用电脑的研究现状,总结了老年人使用电脑的特点。结果显示,老年人在电脑使用方面常用的功能有网上交流、休闲娱乐和信息搜索,经常使用电脑的老年人往往表现出较高的认知能力、电脑自我效能、电脑使用兴趣。分析了老年人心理和认知能力对电脑使用的影响,发现老年人的态度是影响电脑使用的重要因素。此外,老年人认知能力的下降导致了操作电脑的绩效也有所下降。最后指出了当前该领域研究中的不足,展望了今后进一步的研究方向。

With the increase of older adult population,China has entered the aging society.More and more older adults use computers and their computer use becomes a hot research topic.This paper provides a review of present research on older adults＇ computer use.The older adult＇ characteristics of computer use are summarized.The obtained results show that older adults often use computers to conduct internet communication,entertainment and information searching.The older adults who used to use computers tend to have higher cognitive abilities,self-efficacy and interest in computer.This paper also analyzes the influence of older adults＇ psychological perception and cognitive abilities on computer use.It is revealed that an older adult＇ attitude is an important factor affecting his computer use and that lower cognitive ability of an older adult results in lower computer task performance.Besides,this paper also points out the issues existed in the previous studies and gives the future research direction in the area of gerontechnology.