ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI)
How older and younger adults differ in their approach to problem solving on a complex website
Proceedings of the 10th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility
Interactive effects of age and interface differences on search strategies and performance
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Effects of cognitive aging on credibility assessment of online health information
CHI '10 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Influencing technology adoption by older adults
Interacting with Computers
ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS)
Extending predictive models of exploratory behavior to broader populations
UAHCI'11 Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Universal access in human-computer interaction: design for all and eInclusion - Volume Part I
Age differences in exploratory learning from a health information website
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Understanding the role of age and fluid intelligence in information search
Proceedings of the 14th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility
Proceedings of the 7th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Making Sense Through Design
Designing for the wisdom of elders: age related differences in online search strategies
UAHCI'13 Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction: user and context diversity - Volume 2
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Previous research has shown that older adults performed worse in web search tasks, and attributed poorer performance to a decline in their cognitive abilities. We conducted a study involving younger and older adults to compare their web search behavior and performance in ill-defined and well-defined information tasks using a health information website. In ill-defined tasks, only a general description about information needs was given, while in well-defined tasks, information needs as well as the specific target information were given. We found that older adults performed worse than younger adults in well-defined tasks, but the reverse was true in ill-defined tasks. Older adults compensated for their lower cognitive abilities by adopting a top-down knowledge-driven strategy to achieve the same level of performance in the ill-defined tasks. Indeed, path models showed that cognitive abilities, health literacy, and knowledge influenced search strategies adopted by older and younger adults. Design implications are also discussed.