Peter Graf

How Older Adults Learn to Use Mobile Devices: Survey and Field Investigations

Mobile computing devices, such as smart phones, offer benefits that may be especially valuable to older adults (age 65+). Yet, older adults have been shown to have difficulty learning to use these devices. In the research presented in this article, we sought to better understand how older adults learn to use mobile devices, their preferences and barriers, in order to find new ways to support them in their learning process. We conducted two complementary studies: a survey study with 131 respondents from three age groups (20--49, 50--64, 65+) and an in-depth field study with 6 older adults aged 50+. The results showed, among other things, that the preference for trial-and-error decreases with age, and while over half of older respondents and participants preferred using the instruction manual, many reported difficulties using it. We discuss implications for design and illustrate these implications with an example help system, Help Kiosk, designed to support older adults’ learning to use mobile devices.

Age-related differences in the initial usability of mobile device icons

Mobile devices offer much potential to support older adults (age 65+). However, older adults have been relatively slow to adopt mobile devices. Although much ongoing HCI research has examined usability problems to address this issue, little work has looked at whether existing graphical icons are harder to use for this population compared with younger adults. We conducted a qualitative exploratory study and a follow-up experimental study to determine which icon characteristics help initial icon usability for older adults. We found that our older participants did have more problems using existing mobile device icons, but that particular icon characteristics – semantically close meaning (i.e. natural, close link between depicted objects and associated function), familiar, labelled and concrete (i.e. those depicting real-world objects) – improved icon usability for them. We discuss how these findings can help icon designers to create mobile device icons that are more suited to the abilities and technology experience of older adults.

Everyday Life Memory Deficits in Pregnant Women

Converging evidence indicates that pregnant women report experiencing problems with memory, but the results of studies using objective measures are ambiguous. The present study investigated potential reason(s) for the discrepancy between findings of subjective and objective memory deficits, as well as potential source(s) of pregnant womens problems with memory. Sixty-one pregnant and 24 nonpregnant women completed a series of memory tests which included field and laboratory measures of prospective memory. Three standardized questionnaires were used to assess subjective aspects of memory. The influence of cortisol, depressed mood, anxiety, physical symptoms, sleep/fatigue, and busyness on pregnancy-related deficits was also examined. The findings revealed objective pregnancy-related deficits on two of the field measures of prospective memory. Pregnancy-related subjective deficits were also detected on all of the questionnaires. In contrast, no objective pregnancy-related deficits were found on the laboratory measures of memory. Increased physical symptoms accounted for one of the objective deficits in memory, while depressed mood and physical symptoms accounted for two of the subjective memory deficits. Collectively, these findings suggest that pregnant women experience everyday life problems with memory that are not readily detected in the laboratory environment. The predominant use of laboratory tests may explain the myriad of previous failures to detect objective deficits in pregnant womens memory.

Mechanisms Underlying the Link between Cannabis Use and Prospective Memory

While the effects of cannabis use on retrospective memory have been extensively examined, only a limited number of studies have focused on the links between cannabis use and prospective memory. We conducted two studies to examine the links between cannabis use and both time-based and event-based prospective memory as well as potential mechanisms underlying these links. For the first study, 805 students completed an online survey designed to assess cannabis consumption, problems with cannabis use indicative of a disorder, and frequency of experiencing prospective memory failures. The results showed small to moderate sized correlations between cannabis consumption, problems with cannabis use, and prospective memory. However, a series of mediation analyses revealed that correlations between problems with cannabis use and prospective memory were driven by self-reported problems with retrospective memory. For the second study, 48 non-users (who had never used cannabis), 48 experimenters (who had used cannabis five or fewer times in their lives), and 48 chronic users (who had used cannabis at least three times a week for one year) were administered three objective prospective memory tests and three self-report measures of prospective memory. The results revealed no objective deficits in prospective memory associated with chronic cannabis use. In contrast, chronic cannabis users reported experiencing more internally-cued prospective memory failures. Subsequent analyses revealed that this effect was driven by self-reported problems with retrospective memory as well as by use of alcohol and other drugs. Although our samples were not fully characterized with respect to variables such as neurological disorders and family history of substance use disorders, leaving open the possibility that these variables may play a role in the detected relationships, the present findings indicate that cannabis use has a modest effect on self-reported problems with prospective memory, with a primary problem with retrospective memory appearing to underlie this relationship.

More than a surprise: The bivalency effect in task switching

When switching tasks, if stimuli are presented that contain features that cue two of the tasks in the set (i.e., bivalent stimuli), performance slowing is observed on all tasks. This generalized slowing extends to tasks in the set which have no features in common with the bivalent stimulus and is referred to as the bivalency effect. In previous work, the bivalency effect was invoked by presenting occasionally occurring bivalent stimuli; therefore, the possibility that the generalized slowing is simply due to surprise (as opposed to bivalency) has not yet been discounted. This question was addressed in two task switching experiments where the occasionally occurring stimuli were either bivalent (bivalent version) or merely surprising (surprising version). The results confirmed that the generalized slowing was much greater in the bivalent version of both experiments, demonstrating that the magnitude of this effect is greater than can be accounted for by simple surprise. This set of results confirms that slowing task execution when encountering bivalent stimuli may be fundamental for efficient task switching, as adaptive tuning of response style may serve to prepare the cognitive system for possible future high conflict trials.

Recognition memory across the lifespan: the impact of word frequency and study-test interval on estimates of familiarity and recollection.

The goal of this study was to investigate recognition memory performance across the lifespan and to determine how estimates of recollection and familiarity contribute to performance. In each of three experiments, participants from five groups from 14 up to 85 years of age (children, young adults, middle-aged adults, young-old adults, and old-old adults) were presented with high- and low-frequency words in a study phase and were tested immediately afterwards and/or after a one day retention interval. The results showed that word frequency and retention interval affected recognition memory performance as well as estimates of recollection and familiarity. Across the lifespan, the trajectory of recognition memory followed an inverse u-shape function that was neither affected by word frequency nor by retention interval. The trajectory of estimates of recollection also followed an inverse u-shape function, and was especially pronounced for low-frequency words. In contrast, estimates of familiarity did not differ across the lifespan. The results indicate that age differences in recognition memory are mainly due to differences in processes related to recollection while the contribution of familiarity-based processes seems to be age-invariant.

Canadian survey of perianesthetic care for patients receiving electroconvulsive therapy.

Objectives We report on the anesthesia subsection of a comprehensive nationwide survey (Canadian Electroconvulsive Therapy Survey/Enquête canadienne sur les electrochocs) on the practice of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in Canada. Methods This comprehensive survey was sent to the 175 Canadian institutions identified as providers of ECT in 2007. Among other topics, 9 anesthesia-related questions were administered regarding anesthesiology consultation; high-risk patients; credentials of the anesthesia provider; monitoring, airway, and resuscitation equipment; anesthetic induction, muscle relaxant, vasoactive, and other perianesthetic drugs and practices; and postanesthetic discharge. Results Sixty-one percent (107/175) of the institutions returned completed survey questionnaires. More than 70% of the sites reported pre-ECT anesthesiology consultation for all (61%) or most (11%) patients. In more than 90%, a Canadian Royal College–certified anesthesiologist, or equivalent, provided anesthetic care. Routine use of oximetry, electrocardiography, and blood pressure monitoring were reported by all but 2 sites; use of bite block was reported by all but 4 sites; and preoxygenation was reported by all but 7 sites. Dantrolene and capnography were not reported as readily available by 35% and 40%, respectively, with comparatively less frequent availability at non–operating room and lower-volume sites. Conclusions These results suggest safe practices of anesthesia for ECT in Canada. Further attention needs to be paid to ready availability of dantrolene and capnography, particularly at non–operating room ECT sites. Improvements in anesthetic care of patients undergoing ECT may be realized through continued knowledge translation efforts and by expanding access to currently unavailable anesthetic induction agents and, in some settings, limited clinical anesthesiology resources.

Valenced Cues and Contexts Have Different Effects on Event-Based Prospective Memory

This study examined the separate influence and joint influences on event-based prospective memory task performance due to the valence of cues and the valence of contexts. We manipulated the valence of cues and contexts with pictures from the International Affective Picture System. The participants, undergraduate students, showed higher performance when neutral compared to valenced pictures were used for cueing prospective memory. In addition, neutral pictures were more effective as cues when they occurred in a valenced context than in the context of neutral pictures, but the effectiveness of valenced cues did not vary across contexts that differed in valence. The finding of an interaction between cue and context valence indicates that their respective influence on event-based prospective memory task performance cannot be understood in isolation from each other. Our findings are not consistent with by the prevailing view which holds that the scope of attention is broadened and narrowed, respectively, by positively and negatively valenced stimuli. Instead, our findings are more supportive of the recent proposal that the scope of attention is determined by the motivational intensity associated with valenced stimuli. Consistent with this proposal, we speculate that the motivational intensity associated with different retrieval cues determines the scope of attention, that contexts with different valence values determine participants’ task engagement, and that prospective memory task performance is determined jointly by attention scope and task engagement.

Last Semester’s Enduring Impressions

Social organization as a subsystem of a large system of social organization has a unique governance capabilities. The level of social organization autonomous ability what is better to promote the level and the ability of the social governance’s system more scientifically , more modernization, especially in the modern open society. In this paper ,it is based on the perspective of system theory, the meaning of social governance, the status of social organizations, and the effective ways that social organizations to participate in social governance are put forward. In the condition on the basis of the theory of system, the ways of the organizations to participate in social governance shows: overall planning development goals, strengthen the top-level design, perfect social organizations working content, strengthen the responsibility consciousness.The twin challenges of building pathways to sustainable development and reducing poverty have never been more pressing and cannot be effectively tackled without gender equality. It is the realization of this that prompted the United Nations to include poverty elimination and fight against inequality and injustice in its post 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Equality among men and women is more than a matter of social justice—it is a fundamental human right. It also makes good economic sense. When women have equal access to education and go on to participate fully in business and decision-making, they are a key force against poverty. Women with equal rights are better educated, healthier, and have greater access to land, jobs and financial resources. Their increased earning power in turn raises household incomes. By enhancing women’s control over decision-making in the household, gender equality also translates into better prospects and greater well-being of children, reducing poverty of future generations. It is against this backdrop that this paper examines the critical nexus between gender equality, poverty reduction and sustainable development. The paper makes the case that achieving gender equality and realizing the human rights, dignity and capabilities of a diverse group of women is a central requirement in the fight against poverty and a just and sustainable world. The paper also submits that essential public services like health and education, benefit women, men, girls and boys equitably.Wannan Incident, as an important event significantly affecting the Anti-Japanese War and Kuomintang (KMT)-Communist Party of China (CPC) relationship during the second KMT-CPC cooperation, has promoted KMT and CPC to make significant adjustment in policy under the premise of continuing to resist Japan. The KMT-CPC relationship and their policy adjustment, from a fundamental point of view, depend on the development of the Sino-Japanese contradiction. Under the leadership of CPC Central Committee, the Southern Bureau has implemented the Party’s principles and policies as the CPC delegation and Eighth Route Army office. It has taken a principled but flexible strategy to promote the democratic political process in the KMT ruled areas, and has made outstanding contributions in maintaining the KMT-CPC cooperation and the Anti-Japanese national united front.China does not auction radio spectrum for wireless service but uses operations license granted by the government. The paper takes on LTE license to show how a flawed policy impairs adoption of LTE technology in China and how excessive interference hurts telecom operators. LTE has two flavors: TDD and FDD. The Chinese government favors TD-LTE, a “minority” technology, to rescue struggling China Mobile from its failing 3G service, and to make China a leader in LTE. China does this by suppressing LTE FDD and China Mobile’s rivals China Unicom and China Telecom that prefer LTE FDD. As the paper argues, the bad policy has turned a business decision to a politically charged issue that brings harm to LTE development. The high price China has to pay: delayed LTE deployment, eliminated competition, discontent public and a laggard behind many countries in a tight race. The paper then traces the root of the bad policy, what can happen when technology is viewed with political bias, how extraneous factors influence directions of technology without challenge, and what China can learn from the mistake and prevent it from impairing a promising technology. Key words : LTE; TD-LTE; LTE FDD; business decision; 3G; competition; technology adoption; government interferenceBased on the specific regional culture, targeted at configuration of landscape plants at the edge of campus, this article studies the selection, art, culture, function and ecology of plants, and highlights the principles of people orientation and harmonious humanity. It takes Henan Polytechnic University as an example, puts forward the principles of planning landscape plants at the edge of campus, and explores new ideas for deigning the spaces at campus edge.As China’s economic strength and political influence have been greatly increased during the past decades, Tai Chi culture, which has been long viewed as one of the very essential parts of traditional Chinese culture, is being given a golden opportunity to step into the world. Tai Chi contains a variety of values that are quite beneficial for people all over the world to live a peaceful and healthy life. Actually it represents a life attitude that stresses the harmony between man and nature, which is obviously significant in the contemporary society. Today with the intensification of globalization, Tai Chi culture cannot and also should not be restricted only to Chinese people. Instead, it should belong to the whole world. However, the international communication of Tai Chi culture meets both challenges and opportunities. Some myriad stereotypes, misperceptions, and distortions about China may hinder the cultural spreading. The conflict and competition between Tai Chi and other cultures are another problem. In addition, lack of theoretical study of international communication systems should be taken into serious consideration. On the other hand, the culture communication is faced with a favorable internal and external political and economic environment. Besides, practical demands in strained life of contemporary society also call for the wide spreading of Tai Chi culture. In short, joint efforts should be made to overcome the challenges and make full use of the opportunities so as to promote the worldwide spreading of Tai Chi culture.cet article presente un bref apercu de l’histoire des Forces Armees espagnoles remarquant l’importance de l’institution militaire et son role dans l’histoire espagnole contemporaine. Depuis la mort de Franco il y a eu une tentative de canaliser le commandement des Forces Armees dans la voie democratique et constitutionnelle, jouant un role essentiel dans ce sens le general Gutierrez Mellado. Depuis 1981, deux mesures importantes dans le domaine militaire sont prises: la dite Cause 2/81 pour la poursuite judiciaire des responsables de la tentative de coup d’Etat, et la demande d’adhesion de l’Espagne a l’OTAN, etape tres importante qui determinera l’avenir du pays et conduira a la modernisation des Forces Armees espagnoles, comparables, depuis, a celles du monde occidental. Apres la victoire socialiste de 1982 le changement de position du PSOE fut clef: le gouvernement transforma habilement son anti-americanisme initial, ce qui permit l’acces du pays a l’OTAN apres le referendum de 1986, modifia profondement l’armee, et elimina les tensions militaires. La derniere etape du processus de modernisation fut menee par le gouvernement Aznar, qui reussit la professionnalisation des Forces Armees et l’integration de l’Espagne dans la structure militaire de l’OTAN.A teacher’s “accomplishment” plays an important role in education by “soul to soul influence”, especially in the era that Internet changes human life, how to recognize the teacher still has a very large space for improvement. In the era of “Internet +”, the developmental pursuits of students have undergone great changes, but real existence of teacher remains unchanged, so teachers should properly treat the accomplishment of change and unchanged: To highlight the humanities of tolerance, sincerity and kindness; integrate individuation and innovation in profession; accumulate the beauty of client and data thinking.Jinan Old Railway Station, as the only Germanic-style station architectural group in the world, was a landmark of Jinan with high architectural and cultural value. Both its demolition and reconstruction have affected the nerves of Jinan people. This article starts with from a review of the historical evolution of Jinan Old Railway Station, focuses on the history, architectural and cultural value of this station, and further explores the significance of the reconstruction of Jinan Old Railway Station.Action research method is taken in the research. The researchers conduct Chinese character multi-dimensional education from the aspects of experience & expression of Chinese characters forms to cultural infiltration and cooperative learning upon Yiyi who is interested in Chinese culture as well as obstacles in Chinese learning and social adaptability. Yiyi’s imagination, observation ability, knowledge, experience and prosocial behavior, etc. were observed and analyzed by qualitative research method through interviews with teachers, parents and young children and analysis on preschool painting and handiwork in Chinese character multi-dimensional education. The result shows that Yiyi’s imagination has become more and more and her comprehensive ability has improved; knowledge and experience have gradually enriched and observation ability has become persistent; prosocial behavior has increased and enhanced.As the soul of Chinese national culture and profound foundation of advanced socialist culture, Chinese excellent traditional culture reflects the essence of national culture. Vocational colleges shoulder the heavy task of cultivating high-quality workers and skilled talents. It is objectively necessary to regard Chinese excellent traditional culture education as a basic general education course system and scientifically integrate it in course teaching of vocational colleges. Besides, this is an important acting point and key point of course setting innovation in vocational colleges. Vocational colleges must scientifically and reasonably plan course setting of Chinese excellent traditional culture.With economic globalization, trades all over the world have become more frequent, commodities have circulated more rapidly, and diversified consumer demands have been also met. The public has come to realize the importance of brand effect in stimulating consumption and exploring market. The promotion of advertisement on the product is beyond the reach of other forms and has been favored by the public. With the continuous emergence of foreign products, advertisements tend to have more diversified forms and plentiful connotations. In this context, it’s especially important to study on the principles and strategies in foreign brand translation. From a perspective of functional equivalence, this article proposes the “Three Aesthetics” principle and association principle in brand translation, has an introduction to the commonly used translation methods, and puts forward examples to further discuss the feasibility to implement foreign brand translation under the guidance of functional equivalence.Under the background of the competition and upgrading between enterprises; management of enterprises has been the focus of competition. Whether the enterprise could update its management has been a key factor for the enterprise’s success during the competition; which requires the manager of the enterprise paying high attention to the management as well as enhancing the core competitiveness by management innovation. This paper has emphasized briefly the importance of the enterprise’s management innovation to enterprise’s development; and analyzed the basic principles for the enterprise’s management innovation. Based on the current obstacles existed in enterprise’s management innovation, this paper discussed the basic strategies for enterprise’s management innovation, which expected to offer some effective ways for the management innovation work’s carrying out. As an important component factor of enterprise’s core competitiveness improvement, management innovation has played a more and more important role in that field. Currently, our countries’ enterprise management innovation still developed in a low level; and there are large gaps between enterprise’s management innovation and enterprise’s development. Faced with the drags to enterprise’s competitiveness caused by backward enterprise’s management innovation, the enterprises need to have a more objective and general view towards management innovation; envisage the deficiency in the management innovation and take effective measures to update so that the enterprise could improve its management skills and lead up more energy for enterprises’ healthy development. Key words: Enterprise management; Innovation; Principles; StrategiesAlthough voluntary carbon offset market is an important solution to the climate crisis, there hides a variety of risks behind it because of lack of global registration system and measurement method. In this paper, we focused on the default risk from the original carbon supplier in voluntary carbon market, and built an evaluation indicator system according to several principles. Then analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation technology were used to construct evaluation model to measure default risk level which are simple but effective. Finally, a simulation case proved the evaluation indicator system and model proposed can not only work out the comprehensive risk level but also calculate risk level from different aspects, which is useful for stakeholders to make their decisions in voluntary carbon market. Key words: Default risk level; Carbon credit trade; Voluntary carbon offset market; Comprehensive evaluationA citizens’ society needs and promotes the behavior of helping and sympathy for other people. The behavior of charity first is under the premise of respecting for citizens’ freedom and equal status and follows the concept of people-oriented. Only if we take citizens as the center to nurture the spirit of charity (i.e., citizens’ recognition and belief about the charity), it can meet needs of human society and realize the fundamental value of human beings. In the background of citizens having rational individual independence and freedom, we form a charity consensus that is a possible way to nurture the citizens’ spirit of charity and solve conflict issues. When rationally examining unselfish and altruistic acts of charity, we find the charity’s moral consensus rooted in the life way of people’s helping each other in society solidarity. Through the charity, people seek win-win situation for individuals and the society under the background of society solidarity, namely, saving others as if saving oneself is the consensus basis of nurturing citizens’ charitable spirit.The tea markets of Sichuan Province were divided into the origin, entrepot and consumer markets. The original markets of tea were widely distributed in Sichuan, but the main entrepot markets were Kangding and Songpan, which were called frontier tea. This paper will focus on trading of the western frontier tea and the southern frontier tea. Meanwhile, the author will also analyze the distribution of tea firms in this area.Starting from the perspective of cultural talent cultivation, this paper discusses the reason why the inheritance and innovation of culture become the fourth function of college education, the great value the college cultural construction possesses in talent cultivation, the restrictive elements of college talent cultivation from the perspective of culture, and also the leading role of college culture in college talent cultivation.The characteristics of pre-school children’s Chinese learning are: Being dominated by oral communication; instinctive acquisition; acceleration development of learning; learning in context and obviously student-centered learning.