Older Adults' Disorientation in Smartphones: Exploring the Role of Spatial Ability and Quantifying Cognitive Similarity Between Perceived and Physical Information Structure.

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Title: Older Adults' Disorientation in Smartphones: Exploring the Role of Spatial Ability and Quantifying Cognitive Similarity Between Perceived and Physical Information Structure.
Authors: Cao, Jingjing1 (AUTHOR), Zhou, Ziyao2 (AUTHOR), Zhou, Jia1 (AUTHOR) zhoujia07@gmail.com
Source: International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. Sep2025, Vol. 41 Issue 17, p10980-10995. 16p.
Subjects: Spatial ability, Smartphones, Conceptual structures, Aging, Older people, User experience, Similarity (Psychology)
Abstract: Older adults are prone to getting lost when switching between screens on smartphones. Navigating through screens can be demanding regarding the user's spatial ability, which tends to decline with age. This study investigates the impact of information structure and spatial ability on older adults' navigation in smartphone applications. It proposes a method of quantifying cognitive similarity between older adults' perceived information structure and designers' information structure used in applications. Researchers designed three different structured applications as prototypes, with low, medium, and high levels of netting, but with the same contents. Thirty older adults over 65 years of age and thirty younger adults were recruited to participate in the experiment, completing two types of navigation tasks. There were three main findings from our experiment. Firstly, the more reticulated the information structure, the longer the navigation task took the older adults to complete and the more errors were returned, which was the opposite of the results for younger adults. Second, spatial ability has no significant impact on the performance of the process page navigation task. However, it has a significant correlation with the cognitive similarity of older adults to a certain information structure. The higher the score of spatial memory span and pointing ability, the more accurate the cognition construction. Thirdly, the fitting degree of user mind and information structure can be predicted on the premise of specific information structure and given user spatial ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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  Data: Older Adults' Disorientation in Smartphones: Exploring the Role of Spatial Ability and Quantifying Cognitive Similarity Between Perceived and Physical Information Structure.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Cao%2C+Jingjing%22">Cao, Jingjing</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo> (AUTHOR)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Zhou%2C+Ziyao%22">Zhou, Ziyao</searchLink><relatesTo>2</relatesTo> (AUTHOR)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Zhou%2C+Jia%22">Zhou, Jia</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo> (AUTHOR)<i> zhoujia07@gmail.com</i>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22International+Journal+of+Human-Computer+Interaction%22">International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction</searchLink>. Sep2025, Vol. 41 Issue 17, p10980-10995. 16p.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Spatial+ability%22">Spatial ability</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Smartphones%22">Smartphones</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Conceptual+structures%22">Conceptual structures</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Aging%22">Aging</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Older+people%22">Older people</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22User+experience%22">User experience</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Similarity+%28Psychology%29%22">Similarity (Psychology)</searchLink>
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
  Group: Ab
  Data: Older adults are prone to getting lost when switching between screens on smartphones. Navigating through screens can be demanding regarding the user's spatial ability, which tends to decline with age. This study investigates the impact of information structure and spatial ability on older adults' navigation in smartphone applications. It proposes a method of quantifying cognitive similarity between older adults' perceived information structure and designers' information structure used in applications. Researchers designed three different structured applications as prototypes, with low, medium, and high levels of netting, but with the same contents. Thirty older adults over 65 years of age and thirty younger adults were recruited to participate in the experiment, completing two types of navigation tasks. There were three main findings from our experiment. Firstly, the more reticulated the information structure, the longer the navigation task took the older adults to complete and the more errors were returned, which was the opposite of the results for younger adults. Second, spatial ability has no significant impact on the performance of the process page navigation task. However, it has a significant correlation with the cognitive similarity of older adults to a certain information structure. The higher the score of spatial memory span and pointing ability, the more accurate the cognition construction. Thirdly, the fitting degree of user mind and information structure can be predicted on the premise of specific information structure and given user spatial ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
– Name: AbstractSuppliedCopyright
  Label:
  Group: Ab
  Data: <i>Copyright of International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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RecordInfo BibRecord:
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      – Type: doi
        Value: 10.1080/10447318.2024.2439638
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      – Code: eng
        Text: English
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      – SubjectFull: Spatial ability
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Smartphones
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Conceptual structures
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Aging
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Older people
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: User experience
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      – SubjectFull: Similarity (Psychology)
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      – TitleFull: Older Adults' Disorientation in Smartphones: Exploring the Role of Spatial Ability and Quantifying Cognitive Similarity Between Perceived and Physical Information Structure.
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            NameFull: Cao, Jingjing
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            NameFull: Zhou, Ziyao
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              M: 09
              Text: Sep2025
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              Y: 2025
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