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Electronic communication technology can facilitate communications with family, friends and health-care professionals and deliver products and services that can significantly raise quality of life for the aging population. However, technology use by older Americans lags behind that of younger Americans. This paper aims to explore physiological decline and cognitive decline as underlying causes or antecedents that may uniquely contribute to predicting perceived ease of use (PEOU) and actual use of technology over and beyond chronological age among older adults.

Data were collected by University of Michigan’s 2012 Health and Retirement Study from a national sample of 1,686 respondents age 50 or older. Data were analyzed with the Mplus software package. The conceptual framework was estimated with a path analysis model.

Results indicated that physiological decline (vision, hearing and health) and cognitive decline (memory) made a significant unique contribution to predicting PEOU and actual use of technology above and beyond chronological age. Implications for marketing technology-based products and services to older Americans were discussed.

This research has identified and empirically tested how variability in physiological decline and cognitive decline could uniquely predict use of communication technologies, directly and indirectly via PEOU, above and beyond chronological age.

The role of managerial cognitive processes has so far been largely neglected within strategy research which examines organizational decline and recovery. Proposes that heuristics used by managers such as: availability, representativeness, adjustment and anchoring may contribute to the declining performance of the organization. Suggests that mental imagery could be used to adjust these heuristics and change the cognitive processes of the existing managers instead of replacing the top management team in declining organizations. This change in cognitive processes could help increase the ability of a declining firm to improve its performance.

Transformational government has been on the European agenda for several years. However, progress towards transforming public services for older adults with age‐related cognitive impairments has been very limited. While socioeconomic factors associated with the older adult community which can hinder their usage of governments' online services, partly explain such slow progress, the paper argues that inability of current web‐based technologies and services to adequately cater for specific cognitive impairments of older adults plays a major part in this. Highlighting such limitations, the purpose of this paper is to present the results from a research project currently being undertaken in the UK, Norway and Italy, to demonstrate how assistive web‐based technologies can be developed to assist the transformation of governments' services for older adults with age‐related cognitive impairments.

The research approach includes three phases. The aim of Phase 1 is to develop a comprehensive list of requirements for the development of the first version of the delivering inclusive access to disabled and elderly members (DIADEM) application. In Phase 2, a usability evaluation is carried out from the perspective of the older adult target user group. These two phases include the literature revive, the focus group interviews and the user trials. Currently, DIADEM project activities are about to go into Phase 3.

The key findings of the study indicate that the users of the DIADEM assisted online form filling seemed report comparatively high levels of satisfaction. Furthermore, the innovative use of experts systems has brought significant benefits to the older adults with cognitive decline as the DIADEM technology appears to be sensitive to the users who present high level of cognitive decline, and provides increased levels of assistance accordingly. The paper shows how such benefits can transform the governments' services to older adults with age‐related cognitive impairments when the DIADEM technology is commercialised and diffused.

The DIADEM enabled transformations is not simply about technology. It is an organisational change too. As a result further research needs to be carried out on the challenges around change management, and the level of commitment to change which will be required to achieve the DIADEM enabled transformation in governments.

The paper focuses on transforming governments' online services for older adults with age‐related cognitive impairments. This research area has been neglected for several years by both researchers and practitioners.

Purpose – This chapter offers an integrative review of psychological and neurobiological differences between younger and older adults that might impact economic behavior. Focusing on key health economic challenges facing the elderly, it offers perspectives on how these psychological and neurobiological factors may influence decision-making over the life course and considers future interdisciplinary research directions.

Methodology/approach – We review relevant literature from three domains that are essential for developing a comprehensive science of decision-making and economic behavior in aging (psychology, neuroscience, and economics), consider implications for prescription drug coverage and long-term care (LTC) insurance, and highlight future research directions.

Findings – Older adults face many complex economic decisions that directly affect their health and well-being, including LTC insurance, prescription drug plans, and end of life care. Economic research suggests that many older Americans are not making cost-effective and economically rational decisions. While economic models provide insight into some of the financial incentives associated with these decisions, they typically do not consider the roles of cognition and affect in decision-making. Research has established that older age is associated with predictable declines in many cognitive functions and evidence is accumulating that distinct social motives and affect-processing profiles emerge in older age. It is unknown how these age differences impact the economic behaviors of older people and implies opportunities for path-breaking interdisciplinary research.

Originality/value of the chapter – Our chapter looks to develop interdisciplinary research to better understand the causes and consequences of age-related changes in economic decision-making and guide interventions to improve public programs and overall social welfare.

The authors contribute to the literature by contrasting the cognitive with a contextual view on learning and development to address preconceptions about aging in order to broaden employers’ views on learning and performance across the working life and careers of their employees. The authors furthermore identify a number of opportunities that exist to support and sustain learning capability and performance in older workers. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The authors conducted a selective literature search to identify literature that best exemplifies both the cognitive and contextual view.

Age-related declines in performance are observed on very specific and limited tasks, unlikely to be encountered in the workplace. Due to its focus on assessing limits and age differences, such studies will not normally take experience, job and personal resources into account – these are more likely to be present in the workplace. The authors find that much of the more applied evidence suggests older workers can perform at a similar level to their younger colleagues – when the workplace or training context does not restrain them from using their own strategies and resources to complete tasks.

The current overview of research that is more representative of the more cognitive view outlines a number of issues regarding the transferability as well as generalisability of these well publicised findings. Many of the laboratory-based cognitive ageing research focuses on “testing the limits” of cognitive processing and efficiency. This paradigm is not compatible with the specific tasks and learning that takes place in the workplace, which led us to a more contextual view.

The authors provide several starting points for broader and more inclusive training and development, particularly the role of supervisory practices, climate, self-efficacy and learning competency, resources and strategies.

Taking a more contextual view may foster a re-evaluation of how inclusive current managerial practice, policies and current development initiatives are. Distinguishing job and personal resources can help in identifying the aspects that can be influenced by workers themselves and those aspects that are the primary responsibility of organisations and their managers.

Different studies relate the presence of depression to lower cognitive performance and higher functional dependence in older people; however, this is not entirely clear. The purpose of this study is to validate the existence between the association of these conditions.

Cross-sectional and descriptive study was conducted in which the memory, metamemory and global functionality test performance of depressed and non-depressed participants was compared between two groups, one cognitively healthy and other with cognitive decline. The participants were 420 older adults, with an average age of 69 and five years of schooling.

The importance of describing cognitive performance in older adults with depression may provide evidence to support an adequate differential diagnosis and the design of an adequate future therapeutic plan. Identifying and preventing depression in the elderly can improve health and well-being in the elderly.

Depression is a prevalent and highly disabling disease. When it is suffered by an older person, it is associated with higher mortality, functional dependence, poor physical health, worse quality of life indicators and psychological well-being. In the elderly, the clinical diagnosis of depression is difficult, as it has a high comorbidity and is often confused with other health conditions prevalent during older adulthood.

In Israel, institution staff classify residents’ functional status as part of the routine governmental surveillance of institutions for semi‐independent and frail elderly. However, owing to a lack of clarity and specificity in the regulation which defines functional status categories, nurse surveyors, who conduct the routine surveillance of institutions, have begun to make their own estimates of functional status. Data were collected and compared on the functional status classification of 78 per cent of the elderly residents by institution staff and nurse surveyors. Data analysis showed that the poorer the functional status, the less congruity between the classifications. This has practical consequences for estimating the number and type of staff needed. It was found that the waste of resources and discrepancies caused by reclassification of the elderly by the nurse surveyors may be avoided by using more specific and precise definitions as suggested in this article.

Cognitive changes occur with age and cognitive limitations can negatively influence computer use. Human-interaction studies show that especially older adults benefit considerably from using web platforms. The purpose of this paper is to measure the possible impact of cognitive impairment in web usability and to analyse the differences between older adults with and without cognitive impairment.

In the presented pilot study, 50 older adults tested a web-based interface on a PC and tablet computer that was designed based on a styleguide for this specific user group. In two sessions participants had to conduct six tasks. In a third session older adults were left unsupervised in the laboratory where they were confronted with unexpected events triggered by a principal investigator.

The performance results differed significantly between the two groups. Older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) needed more time and were more likely to make mistakes when using a web platform. After analysing error data, it became apparent that errors made by older adults with MCI occurred due to a lack of orientation in websites.

Little is known about web performance of older adults with cognitive impairment. The authors present valid data of this interesting target group and reveal their specific problems when handling a new online platform. The importance of a flat website hierarchy can be essential in developing senior friendly web pages. The authors also highlight methodological issues and illustrate the importance of qualitative information of the usability data, e.g. the different types of problems or errors.

Older workers represent an increasingly important source of labour for organisations. Irrespective of age, a worker needs the appropriate skills and knowledge to be productive and to help the organisation achieve its strategic objectives. However, in many organisations, older workers are less likely to be offered training opportunities than their younger compatriots. This is due, in part, to negative stereotypical assumptions about older workers by managers. Learning and training are influenced by an individual’s career span and motivation. As a person ages, their work-related needs will change. There is a shift from growing and developing their career to a focus on security, maintenance, emotional satisfaction and mastery. Cognitive change takes place during a person’s life, and a gradual decline in primary mental abilities can be expected, but the notions of general decline are simplistic and misleading. A person is able to learn at any age and the older worker is capable of adjusting to changes in work. Many people assume that older workers are homogeneous but this is not the case. There are significant differences between older workers and these differences need to be acknowledged and understood. The organisational culture will affect learning and training opportunities for older workers, as will the attitudes of managers to older employees. Learning and training for older workers will also be influenced by the national culture and, in this chapter, selected Asian countries are discussed. The chapter concludes by offering recommendations regarding learning and training for older workers in organisations.

The Dementia Questionnaire for People with Learning Disabilities (DLD) is one of the main screening and monitoring tools for dementia in people with Down’s syndrome (DS). As part of a quality improvement project to improve the care for people with DS and dementia in an intellectual disability service, the authors studied the screening and monitoring process by retrospectively investigating the use of DLD and exploring clinicians’ experience of using it.

DLDs completed in the service was retrospectively assessed. Changes in DLD scores were matched against people who received a clinical diagnosis of dementia. Data were analysed to estimate sensitivity, specificity and predictive values of DLD. A questionnaire was used to assess clinicians’ experience.

Data for 20 service users was collected. DLD cognitive scores showed 80% sensitivity and 60% specificity for the diagnosis of dementia, with a positive predictive value of 40% and negative predictive value of 90%. Staff found DLD to be easy to perform but time consuming. This led to the preparation of a decision tool for appropriateness of performing a DLD.

The results show that a negative DLD helps to exclude dementia where there is concern over cognitive decline, but a positive result is not specific enough to suggest the possibility of dementia. This shows that DLD may have limitations if used as a screening tool alone but could be used for the monitoring of the disease trajectory of those with a confirmed diagnosis as well as to establish a baseline DLD when a person is screened for dementia first.