Collaborative Automated Systems: Older Adults' Mental Model Acquisition and Trust in Automation

Abstract

Older adults may encounter automated systems in a variety of context such as health care and transportation. Consequently it is important to understand the interactions between system knowledge and reliance. In this ongoing study, we tested 19 older adults on their ability to form an accurate mental model and how they responded to an automated navigation aid that was 70% and 100% reliable. Some older adults were able to form highly accurate mental models and were able to detect when the collaborative automated system was faulty. However, most of the older adults did not form accurate mental models and were likely to inappropriately trust the automation. Training to augment cognition may be helpful for older adults who use collaborative automated systems and have difficulty developing a highly accurate mental model.

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