Effects of Computer Presentation Format on Learning in the Elderly

Abstract

Younger and older adults studied two descriptions of the processes of measuring blood pressure and bees making honey under one of three experimental conditions: (a) text-only; (b) text plus narration; and (c) graphics plus narration. A control group without studying the materials was included in each age group. On verbal recall tests, the control group in both age groups performed more poorly than all the respective experimental groups, which were not different from each other. On transfer tests, the younger participants in the control group performed more poorly than all the experimental groups, which were not different from one another. For older participants, control group performed more poorly than text plus narration and graphics plus narration groups. Moreover, the text plus narration group performed better than the text-only group. These results revealed potential differences between the facilitations provided by verbal and non-verbal visual information for younger and older adults in learning novel information.

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