TECHNOLOGY FOR ADAPTIVE AGING
Richard W. Pew and Susan B. Van Hemel, Editors
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
www.nap.edu
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
500 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20001
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
The study was supported by Contract No. N01-0D-4-02139, T.O. 94 between the National Academy of Sciences and the National Institutes of Health. The views, opinions and/or findings contained in this report and papers are those of the author(s) and should not be construed as an official NIH position, policy or decision unless so designated by other official documentation.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Workshop on Technology for Adaptive Aging (2003 : Washington, D.C.)
Technology for adaptive aging / Steering Committee for the Workshop on Technology for Adaptive Aging ; Richard W. Pew and Susan B. Van Hemel, editors ; Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education.
p. cm.
“The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.”
ISBN 0-309-09116-0 (pbk.)—ISBN 0-309-52923-9 (PDF)
1. Aged—United States—Congresses. 2. Aged—Health and hygiene—United States—Congresses. I. Pew, Richard W. II. Van Hemel, Susan B. III. National Research Council (U.S.). Steering Committee for the Workshop on Technology for Adaptive Aging. IV. National Research Council (U.S.). Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences. V. Title.
HQ1064.U5W654 2003
305.26′0973—dc22
2004001868
Additional copies of this report are available from
National Academies Press,
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Copyright 2004 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Suggested citation: National Research Council. (2004). Technology for Adaptive Aging. Steering Committee for the Workshop on Technology for Adaptive Aging. Richard W. Pew and Susan B. Van Hemel, editors. Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Wm. A. Wulf is president of the National Academy of Engineering.
The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy′s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts and Dr. Wm. A. Wulf are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.
STEERING COMMITTEE FOR THE WORKSHOP ON ADAPTIVE AGING: FROM TECHNOLOGY TO GERONTOLOGY
RICHARD W. PEW (Chair),
BBN Technologies, Cambridge, MA
SCOTT A. BASS, Dean of the Graduate School and Department of Sociology and Public Policy,
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
JOSEPH F. COUGHLIN,
AgeLab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MELISSA A. HARDY,
Gerontology Center and Department of Human Development & Family Studies and Sociology, The Pennsylvania State University
ARTHUR F. KRAMER,
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
MARTHA E. POLLACK,
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan
WENDY A. ROGERS,
School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology
RICHARD SCHULZ,
University Center for Social and Urban Research and Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh
CHARLES T. SCIALFA,
Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Alberta
THOMAS B. SHERIDAN, emeritus,
Departments of Engineering and Applied Psychology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
SUSAN B. VAN HEMEL, Study Director
JESSICA G. MARTINEZ, Senior Project Assistant
BOARD ON BEHAVIORAL, COGNITIVE, AND SENSORY SCIENCES
ANNE C. PETERSEN (Chair),
W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Battle Creek, MI
LINDA MARIE BURTON,
Center for Human Development and Family Research, Pennsylvania State University
STEPHEN J. CECI,
Department of Human Development, Cornell University
EUGENE K. EMORY,
Department of Psychology, Emory University
ROCHEL GELMAN,
Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University
ANTHONY W. JACKSON,
Asia Society, Los Angeles
PETER LENNIE,
Center for Neural Science, New York University
MARCIA C. LINN,
Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley
ELISSA L. NEWPORT,
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester
MICHAEL L. RUTTER,
Institute of Psychiatry, University of London
ARNOLD SAMEROFF,
Center for Human Growth and Development, University of Michigan
JAMES W. STIGLER,
Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
WILLIAM A. YOST,
Office of Research and the Graduate School, Loyola University, Chicago
CHRISTINE R. HARTEL, Director
MICHAEL J. FEUER, Executive Board Director
Contents
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Cognitive Aging |
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Movement Control in the Older Adult |
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Methodological Issues in the Assessment of Technology Use for Older Adults |
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Addressing the Communication Needs of an Aging Society |
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Technology and Employment |
Everyday Health: Technology for Adaptive Aging |
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Technology and Learning in Current and Future Older Cohorts |
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The Impact of Technology on Living Environments for Older Adults |
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Personal Vehicle Transportation |
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APPENDIXES |
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Preface
This volume is the product of work by a steering committee appointed by the National Research Council (NRC) and of 16 workshop paper authors in response to tasking from the sponsor, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) office of Behavioral and Social Research (BSR).
In September 2001, the NRC entered into a contract with the NIA BSR to conduct workshops on applications of technology to the needs of an aging population. The initial plan envisioned two workshops that would bring together experts, first in behavioral sciences and later in technology, to discuss the needs of older Americans today and in the next few decades and to look at current and emerging technologies to see how they might fill some of these needs. The task also included identifying and discussing those factors in society and the economy that might act as facilitators or barriers to the development, marketing, or use of technological solutions.
BSR saw the workshops as one means of addressing some concerns about federal programs intended to foster the transfer of technology from the laboratory to the marketplace. They were especially interested in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, which provides grants and contracts to small businesses for product and services research and development with the goal of having the private sector complete the development process and bring the products or services to market. For several years the NIA, like other federal agencies with significant extramural research programs, has been required to set aside a percentage of research funding for SBIR and related programs, but the programs at NIA have been less successful than desired in meeting their goals, judging by available outcome measures. The workshop project was intended to help NIA obtain a better return on their SBIR investments by identifying prom-
ising areas of technology that could be developed for application to the needs of the older population.
The NRC assembled a steering committee of 10 experts in various subject areas related to the science of aging and the potential applications of technology to the problems and needs of older Americans. The steering committee then selected the experts to participate in the workshop and write the papers presented in this volume. (Biographical sketches of the steering committee members are included in Appendix B.)
WORKSHOP PLANNING
At its first meeting in May 2002, the steering committee decided to combine the originally proposed two 1-day workshops into a single 2-day event. The steering committee selected two overview topics and six major “life domains” to be addressed. The overview topics were changes with aging, and methodology and measurement issues, designed to avoid the need for specific topic authors to address these generic areas. The life domains selected for the workshop were communication, employment, health, learning, living environments, and transportation.
For each topic, the steering committee decided to select a team of two authors. For changes with aging, one author was to deal with cognitive, sensory, and attentional changes and the other with perceptual-motor and related changes. In the end these two topics were addressed in separate papers. The authors for methodology and measurement issues were to be experts in the research issues of measurement, techniques of data collection, research design, and data analysis, with particular emphasis on research with older adults and studies of change. (Biographical sketches of the workshop authors are included in Appendix B.)
For each of the six life domains, one author would have special expertise in the behavioral and social characteristics of the older population in that domain, and the other would have more knowledge of technology as applied to that domain. A steering committee member was assigned responsibility for each topic to serve as liaison with the steering committee, to foster cooperation between authors, and to provide critical feedback as the work progressed.
The steering committee was responsible for the selection of authors and for the topic statements that provided the charge to each pair of authors. By the fall of 2002 authors were under contract and developing outlines for all of the papers. The steering committee reviewed all outlines received and provided feedback to the authors through their liaisons. First drafts of many papers and presentations were received in time to provide feedback before the workshop.
Two primary authors (George Stelmach and Jacqueline Dunbar-Jacob) chose to add additional co-authors. Four of the original authors were unable to complete their assignments, but we would like to acknowledge their contributions to the workshop. The late Patricia Waller had agreed to be an author of the transportation paper but was forced to withdraw because of her final illness. We greatly regret her loss, both for this project and for the transportation research community. Joachim Meyer kindly agreed to replace Dr. Waller as author. Brian Repa delivered the presentation on transportation at the workshop and contributed ideas to the paper, but is not an author of the final paper. In the case of the learning paper, both Sherry Willis and James Sullivan presented at the workshop, with input from Gerhard Fischer, but Drs. Sullivan and Fischer were unable to participate in the completion and revisions of the paper.
THE WORKSHOP
The workshop was held on January 23 and 24, 2003, at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. Steering committee liaisons served as discussants for the papers, along with two outside discussants invited to address economic factors related to the health and employment topics. In addition to the presenters and the steering committee, there were approximately 40-50 attendees over the course of the two days. (The guests who registered and attended are listed in Appendix A.) These included government personnel, researchers, business people, members of the caregiving professions, representatives of advocacy and service organizations, and others. Interesting issues were raised in discussion sessions, and many attendees praised the workshop for bringing together people from disciplines and interest groups that seldom communicate with each other, thereby raising awareness of the opportunities for cooperation.
Part I of this volume is the report of the steering committee, based on the workshop papers and discussion and on its own deliberations. Parts II and III present revised and edited versions of the papers presented at the workshop.
The committee would like to acknowledge the contributions of a number of people who helped us to complete the work reported here. In addition to the steering committee members who served as discussants at the workshop, Jonathan Skinner and Joseph Quinn served as invited discussants for the Health and Employment papers, respectively. We are grateful for their participation and for the insights they contributed. We wish to thank Richard Suzman, our sponsor, and his staff at the NIA BSR program office for their guidance and assistance, especially in the planning of the workshop. At the NRC, Susan B. Van Hemel was the study director for this project. Special thanks are due to Christine Hartel, director of the
Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences, for her guidance and support, to Elaine McGarraugh and Christine McShane for editing the manuscript, and to Jessica Gonzalez Martinez, our dedicated project assistant. Wendy Keenan and Deborah Johnson also provided invaluable help with the January 2003 workshop.
Part I, the steering committee′s report of the workshop, has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the Report Review Committee of the NRC. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making the published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. Parts II and III, the workshop papers, were reviewed by the steering committee. Their authors are responsible for their content.
We thank the following individuals for their participation in the review of Part I of this report: Laura L. Carstensen, Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Lona H. Choi, Spry Foundation, Washington, DC, James L. Fozard, Florida Gerontological Research and Training Services, Palm Harbor, FL, Daryle Gardner-Bonneau, Bonneau and Associates, Portage, MI, Denise G. Park, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the content of the document, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by William Howell of Arizona State University. Appointed by the NRC, he was responsible for making sure that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all reviewers′ comments were considered carefully. Responsibility for the final content of this report, however, rests entirely with the authors and the institution.
Richard W. Pew, Chair
Steering Committee for the Workshop on Technology for Adaptive Aging