Older Adults
Younger AdultsDr. Tracy Mitzner
Aging, Cognition, Technology Acceptance, Healthcare, Reading, Vision, Human-Robot Interaction
Research Interests
My current research is addressing issues related to technology and older adults. The number of older adults in our society is rapidly increasing and technology has the potential to benefit their lives in many ways, including providing support for age-related declines. Moreover, technology is becoming so ingrained in our culture that it is becoming a necessity to use it for many activities of daily life. In one project, we are exploring the difficulties encountered by home health care providers when performing their caregiving tasks. We will be categorizing the types of problems home health care providers report and proposing human factors solutions. In another study, we are investigating the factors that predict older adults’ attitudes about the usefulness of computers in every day life. We are also exploring their preferences for and usage of computers with respect to content and system characteristics. By gaining an understanding of the needs and preferences of older adults, technology and technology training materials can designed to better meet their needs. Lastly, we are working with the PR2 to examine attitudes of older adults and home health care providers regarding robot assistance.
Education
- Ph.D., Cognitive/Experimental Psychology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2001
- Graduate Certificate in Gerontology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2001
- Minor in Quantitative Psychology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2001
- M.A., Cognitive/Experimental Psychology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 1998
- B.A., Psychology, Beloit College, Beloit, WI, 1992
Affiliations and Professional Positions
- American Psychological Association
- Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
- Gerontological Society of America
Curriculum Vitae
- PDF version
Contact Information
- Office Location : Psychology Building, Room G97
- Phone Number : 404-385-0011
- Fax: 404-894-8905
- E-mail: tracy@gatech.edu
Selected Publications
- Mitzner, T. L., & Dijkstra, K. (in press). E-Health for older adults: assessing and evaluating user centered design with subjective methods. To appear in M. Ziefle & C. Röcker (Eds.), Human-centered design of e-health technologies: Concepts, methods and applications (pp. xx-xx). Hershey, Pennsylvania: IGI Global.
- Mitzner, T. L., & Rogers, W. A. (2010). Understanding older adults’ limitations and capabilities, and involving them in the design process. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI2010). New York, NY: ACM.
- Mitzner, T. L., Touron, D. Rogers, W.A., Hertzog C. (2010). Checking it twice: Age-related differences in double checking during visual search. To appear in the Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 54th Annual Meeting. San Francisco, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
- Mitzner, T. L., Boron, J. B., Fausset, C. B., Adams, A. E., Charness, N., Czaja, S. J., Dijkstra, K., Fisk, A. D., Rogers, W. A., & Sharit, J. (2010). Older Adults Talk Technology: Technology Usage and Attitudes. Computers in Human Behavior, 26, 1710-1721.
