Effects of age and instructions on teaching older adults to use ELDERCOMM,an electronic bulletin board system

This study focused on how to train older adults to perform computer procedu res. Young-old (aged 60-74 years) and old-old (aged 75 years and older) adu lts were instructed on how to use ELDERCOMM, an electronic bulletin board s ystem using one of two types of text-based instructions. The first set of d irections consisted of illustrated, step-by-step instructions (simple condi tion). The second set of directions included the same step-by-step instruct ions as in the first set, but explanatory information about how the bulleti n board system worked was added before the instructions for each of the pro cedures (expanded condition). Participants were tested on hour well they le arned to perform the computer tasks immediately after training and 1 week l ater. Study results revealed the following: (a) young-old adults outperform ed old-old adults in their ability to acquire and retain computer sk ills, (b) simple instructions facilitated computer skill acquisition in both age groups relative to expanded instructions, and (c) measures of underlying co gnitive mechanisms were predictive of performance depending on how particip ants were trained.