Abstract
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) occurs in older adults whose cognitive decline is greater than in normal aging, and it is a risk-factor for dementia. Cognitive training through games is a potential way to protect against further decline and delay the onset of dementia. This study investigated the usability and acceptability of a set of cognitive games for people with MCI when delivered on a robotic interface. 10 older adults played a set of cognitive games delivered on a robot with a touchscreen. Participants evaluated their experience through questionnaires. Observations of their interaction with the robot were also conducted by the researchers and experts in aged care to get further insight into the usability of these games. Findings demonstrated that both the users and experts believed the games to have potential to improve cognition in people with MCI. However, there were many functional issues with the robot that needed improvement including technical difficulties, problems with understanding the robot’s speech and language, and problems for the older adult in using the touchscreen to complete the games. This study highlights design considerations for cognitive games for older adults on robotic devices.
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Funding
This study was supported by the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE, Korea) under Industrial Technology Innovation Program (No. 10063300).
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Law, M. et al. (2019). User Testing of Cognitive Training Games for People with Mild Cognitive Impairment: Design Implications. In: Salichs, M., et al. Social Robotics. ICSR 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11876. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35888-4_43
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35888-4_43
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