Elderly People at Home: Technological Help in Everyday Activities * M.V. Giuliani M. Scopelliti F. Fornara Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC) Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC) Department of Psychology Italian National Research Council (CNR) Italian National Research Council (CNR) University of Cagliari Rome, Italy, 00161 Rome, Italy, 00161 Cagliari, Italy,09123 vittoria.giuliani@istc.cnr.it massimiliano.scopelliti@istc.cnr.it ffornara@unica.it * This work is partially supported by MIUR (Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research) under project RoboCare (A Multi-Agent System with Intelligent Fixed and Mobile Robotic Components). Abstract - The aim of this paper is to understand to what extent elderly people are likely to accept a technological aid in performing everyday activities. In this perspective, the present research focused on elderly people’s strategies in performing everyday activities at home, in order to understand in what do- mestic domains technology can be considered an acceptable help. We administered a questionnaire focusing on preferred strategies in carrying out common domestic tasks, and on attitudes towards new technologies and home modification to a sample of 123 eld- erly people living in Rome. Results show that the adoption of a strategy, including the introduction of technological devices, is highly problem-specific, while personal factors are relevant only in particular situations. With increasing age, people are more inclined to give up, and higher educational levels correspond to more frequent technological solutions. Index Terms – Coping strategies; elderly people; assimilation; accommodation; technology; home. I. INTRODUCTION A previous study, carried out as a part of the Robocare pro- ject [1] with the aim of assessing people’s attitudes and pref- erences towards a domestic robot, showed that the elderly have a conflicting view of such a device [2]. Older people seem to recognize its potential usefulness in the home, but they are somewhat scared of possible damages caused by the robot and are afraid of intrusions into their privacy. As re- gards physical shape and behavior of the robot, they clearly express a preference towards a serious looking small robot, with a single cover color and slow movements. Moreover, most of them would like it not to be free to wander inside the house and would expect it to be programmed in a fixed way to execute specific tasks. However, when asked about the spe- cific tasks the robot could perform in their home, people’s answers are somewhat vague or unrealistic. In fact, robots are still too far away from everyday life to be easily distinguished from other technological aids, and the attitude towards them mirrors the general attitude towards new technologies. The key point to be emphasized is that the elderly do not show an a priori opposition to technological innovations, but they are more likely to accept them only when the practical benefits are evident. The assessment of benefits is not only related to the actual capability of a machine to perform a task, but also to the value people attribute to that task, and to the alternatives which are available. Hence, an important aim is to understand what the deeper needs of elderly users are and what the solutions are that are usually implemented to satisfy these needs. Ignoring these aspects would pose serious difficulties for the adoption of potentially useful devices. A central feature to be emphasized is the relationship be- tween adopted strategies, successful aging [3] and life satis- faction. In life-span developmental psychology, the Piagetian terms assimilation and accommodation are used to designate two complementary strategies for reducing discrepancies be- tween desired and factual situations [4]: the first involving active modification of the environment in order to reach per- sonal goals; the second comprising mechanisms and processes by which goals are adjusted to external constraints and losses in personal resources. Some studies [5, 6] showed that people tend to shift from assimilative to accommodative strategies as age increases, both strategies however being positively related to life satisfaction. Reference [6] explored the relevance of different factors - including personal competence, social network, and adaptabil- ity of the house - in influencing the attitude towards more as- similative or more accommodative strategies within an elderly group. Five adaptive strategies were considered: physical modification of the environment, formal help, informal help, change of behavior, and accommodation. Strategies of adapta- tion of the physical environment are considered the most assimilative; strategies of personal adaptation (particularly the “give-up” reaction) are categorized as the most accommoda- tive ones. Results show that the type of problem is the major determinant of the adaptive strategy people choose, while other factors play a relatively modest role. Following this conceptual framework, the present study ad- dresses the issue of technological modification of the home as 365 0-7803-9275-2/05/$20.00 ©2005 IEEE 2005 IEEE International Workshop on Robots and Human Interactive Communication