Michael Schellenbach

Psychological principles of successful aging technologies : A mini-review

Based on resource-oriented conceptions of successful lifespan development, we propose three principles for evaluating assistive technology: (a) net resource release; (b) person specificity, and (c) proximal versus distal frames of evaluation. We discuss how these general principles can aid the design and evaluation of assistive technology in adulthood and old age, and propose two technological strategies, one targeting sensorimotor and the other cognitive functioning. The sensorimotor strategy aims at releasing cognitive resources such as attention and working memory by reducing the cognitive demands of sensory or sensorimotor aspects of performance. The cognitive strategy attempts to provide adaptive and individualized cuing structures orienting the individual in time and space by providing prompts that connect properties of the environment to the individual’s action goals. We argue that intelligent assistive technology continuously adjusts the balance between ‘environmental support’ and ‘self-initiated processing’ in person-specific and aging-sensitive ways, leading to enhanced allocation of cognitive resources. Furthermore, intelligent assistive technology may foster the generation of formerly latent cognitive resources by activating developmental reserves (plasticity). We conclude that ‘lifespan technology’, if co-constructed by behavioral scientists, engineers, and aging individuals, offers great promise for improving both the transition from middle adulthood to old age and the degree of autonomy in old age in present and future generations.

Interacting Effects of Cognitive Load and Adult Age on the Regularity of Whole-Body Motion During Treadmill Walking

We investigated effects of concurrent cognitive task difficulty (n-back) on the regularity of whole-body movements during treadmill walking in women and men from 3 age groups (20-30, 60-70, and 70-80 years old). Using principal component analysis of individual gait patterns, we separated main (regular) from residual (irregular) components of whole-body motion. Proportion of residual variance (RV) was used as an index of gait irregularity. The gait in all age groups became more regular (reduced RV) upon introduction of a simple cognitive task (1-back), relative to walking without a concurrent cognitive task. In contrast, parametrically increasing working memory load from 1-back to 4-back led to age-differential effects, with gait patterns becoming more regular in those 20-30 years old, becoming less regular in those 70-80 years old, and showing no significant effects in those 60-70 years old. Our results support the dual-process account of sensorimotor-cognitive interactions (O. Huxhold, S.-C. Li, F. Schmiedek, and U. Lindenberger, 2006), with age-general effects of internal versus external attentional focus and age-specific effects of resource competition with increasing cognitive task difficulty.

SmartSenior@home: Acceptance of an integrated ambient assisted living system. Results of a clinical field trial in 35 households

ABSTRACT Aims: The primary objective of the SmartSenior@home study was to examine the acceptance of the SmartSenior system by older adults. Methods: Twenty-eight partners from industry and research, including the health care sector, worked collaboratively to implement services aiming to maximize independence in old age. The prospective cohort study was conducted in Potsdam, Germany, with n = 35 older adults between 55 and 88 years of age in their apartments. All participants underwent extensive pre- and post-study visits with in-home interviews, functional assessments for cognition, fine motor skills, and mobility as well as responding to questionnaires on user acceptance and quality of life. Results: The results indicate moderate-to-high user acceptance for the SmartSenior system. In particular, the services for general assistance and health, such as audio/video communication, blood pressure monitoring, and communication with a health professional, were rated as very attractive. Less used and less accepted services were those promoting social interaction and reminder services. Conclusion: Besides reliable functioning of the SmartSenior system, the availability of a confidant seems to be the most significant acceptance factor. As one conclusion of this trial, it is possible to develop, integrate, and test an infrastructure for ambient assisted living services in real life.

A laboratory evaluation framework for pedestrian navigation devices

The design of personal mobile navigation devices needs to take into account the context of use, including different types of input in order to react to changing cognitive as well as to haptic constraints. In this work we propose a laboratory evaluation framework for pedestrian navigation devices that aims to maximize the significance of results obtained in a virtual environment for later field usage. In order to increase the degree of physical motion of test users, we have designed a Virtual Environment (VE) with a treadmill-based walking interface. In order to validate our approach we present preliminary results from a study comparing over-ground walking with treadmill walking, which shows the applicability of the treadmill VE. With this work we would like to combine methodologies coming from cognitive psychology with field-study methods often used in user-interface design.

Test methodologies for pedestrian navigation aids In old age

Assistive Technology offers great promise for improving the quality of aging, if the design of the devices is adapted to the needs of the user. In this paper we describe a test environment and first studies to evaluate mobile navigation systems in respect of the usability for elderly people.

Feedback-controlled locomotion in virtual environments

In this work we propose an extension of our laboratory evaluation framework [1] equipped with a virtual environment (VE). In order to simulate ecologically valid walking in the VE, we evaluate biomechanical processes in gait to control the speed of the treadmill that participants in the laboratory are walking on. Our approach allows predicting the actual speed while walking based on hip movement and additionally on step length. In order to validate our approach we present preliminary results from a study comparing different walking tasks in a VE.

Towards context-sensitive support of vitality in old-age

Over the the last century, the average lifespan extended remarkably. The economic and social implications of living longer are vast, and include offering new prospects to make latent potential in old age accessible both to senior citizens and to society. Growing evidence suggests that the brain retains its capability to change from experience into old age, a finding that encourages targeting the elderly for interventions such as physical activity which is known to impact cognitive and neural decline. In this work we suggest intervening on the basis of these findings by means of intelligent assistive technology. Therefore, we propose a system architecture for a mobile context-aware cognitive assistant (CACA) to assess and enhance cognitive functioning of older individuals. In our view, tailored context-aware assistance can activate latent physical and cognitive potential through a combination of challenge and support, aimed at enhancing individual motivation to pursue a sustainable lifestyle.