EFFECTS OF AGE AND TRAINING FORMATS ON BASIC COMPUTER SKILL ACQUISITION IN OLDER ADULTS

This study examined the ability of young-old (ages 60-74 years) and ol d-old (ages 75-89 years) adults to acquire and retain basic computer s kills The effects of two types of training methods on. computer skill acquisition in these age groups also were explored. Participants in th is study were trained to perform basic computer procedures with either an animated interactive multimedia compact disk (CDROM) or an illustr ated manual. They were then tested on their ability to perform these p rocedures immediately after training and I week later. The findings re vealed the following The young-old adults made fewer performance and m otor control errors, required less assistance, and took less time for training than the old-old adults. Some forgetting of factual informati on about the computers and how to perform some of the procedures took place over time in both age groups In addition, measures of spatial an d verbal working memory were significant predictors of computer skill acquisition in some instances Finally, performance was approximately t he same with the CD-ROM and the manual in both age groups.