Intelligent support technologies for older people : an analysis of characteristics and roles

For almost two decades there have been many developments in using intelligent technologies to support older people, with many different terms proposed to describe these technologies including assistive robots, embodied conversational agents and relational agents. Many technologies have been proposed in many different configurations and many assistance roles have been explored. Characteristics of these technologies include tangible or virtual; anthropomorphic, biomorphic, creature or object-like; level of visual realism; paralinguistic abilities; interactivity; adaptability; movement; and positioning. The assistive roles proposed include providing information, advice and reminders, helping with physical tasks, monitoring, providing companionship and emotional support. This paper provides an overview of the characteristics and roles of these technologies and attempts to clarify some of the terminology used. It aims to provide a guide for researchers from the wide range of disciplines working on such technologies for supporting older people

Field Evaluation with Cognitively-Impaired Older Adults of Attention Management in the Embodied Conversational Agent Louise

International audienceWe present the first experiment we conducted to evaluate the attention monitoring performance of Louise, following a Wizard of Oz method, during the interactions with a cohort of 8 elderly users in a day hospital environment. Louise is a new, semi-automatic prototype of an Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA), a virtual character interacting with users through social-like communication, adapted to the special needs of older adults with cognitive impairment; it is intended to ultimately provide assistance in their activities of daily living. We recorded and analyzed both videos of the conversation-like interactions and Louise's tracking data. In our experiment, Louise's attention estimation algorithm achieved about 80% accuracy; moreover, in almost all cases, the user's attention was successfully recaptured by Louise after a planned, experimenter-induced distraction. These results are in line with what was observed in previous experiments involving only younger adults, thus suggesting that attention measurement tools embedded in cognitive prostheses will not need to be adapted to elderly patients. Finally, to gain further insights on conversation management and provide evidence-based suggestions for future work, we performed an anthropological analysis of the whole experiment

Implications of Skinner\u27s Verbal Behavior for Studying Dementia

Persons with dementia experience continual declines in a number of abilities. Language abilities are particularly hard hit and become increasingly impaired as the underlying disease progresses. These language impairments make verbal communication very challenging for family and professional caregivers. As a result, caregivers may inadvertently punish verbal behavior, thereby exacerbating the deterioration of verbal repertoires. Although the topography of language impairments associated with dementia have been well described, less empirical work has been conducted concerning how to minimize these impairments and their deleterious effects. In 1957 B.F. Skinner outlined his conceptualization of language and cognition in his book Verbal Behavior. This paper will explore the implications of Skinner’s Verbal Behavior for studying communication impairments associated with dementia

Effect of agent embodiment on the elder user enjoyment of a game

International audienceThis paper presents a study that compared the elder user enjoyment of a game of trivia in three conditions: participants playing the game with a laptop PC vs. a robot vs. a virtual agent. Statistical analysis did not show any significant difference of the three devices on user enjoyment while qualitative analysis revealed a preference for the laptop PC condition, followed by the robot and the virtual agent. The elderly participants were concentrated on the task performance rather on the interaction with systems. They preferred laptop PC condition mainly because there were less interfaces distracting them from performing the task proposed by the game. Further, the robot was preferred to a virtual agent because of its physical presence. Some issues of the experiment design are raised and directions for future research are suggested to gain more insight into the effects of agent embodiment on human-agent interaction

The Effects And Comparisons Of Receptive Live Music Listening And Expressive Music Making On Mood With Elderly Adults In A Congregate Residential Setting

It is important to consider mood and its effect on elderly persons as many older adults will experience symptoms of depression. In prior studies, research indicated that preferred music listening and expressive music making can positively change mood in older adults. The purpose of this research study was to investigate the differences between receptive music listening and expressive music making (presented as a facilitated group music therapy session) and their effect on participants’ mood. The researcher hypothesized that 1) there would be a significant difference for pre and posttest standardized mood assessment (PANAS) scores between the receptive music listening and expressive music making groups in comparison with the control and that 2) the expressive music making treatment would elicit the greatest positive affect change. In this study, 23 participants from four different assisted living facilities were asked to attend three different treatment conditions on separate dates. Using the PANAS questionnaire, participants ranked their mood in both a pre and posttest. At the conclusion of receiving all three treatments, the participants were given three qualitative questions about their exposure to music, the role of music in their lives, and about the study in general. A 3 (Treatment Groups: Expressive Music Making, Receptive Music Listening, vs. Control Group) x 2 (Time of Test: Pretest vs. Posttest) x 2 (Affect: Positive Affect vs. Negative Affect) repeated-measures ANOVA test with a within subject’s factor concluded that positive affect generally increased between pre and posttest with all participants and negative affect was not affected. There was no significant difference between the receptive music listening and the expressive music making conditions; however, positive affect was slightly greater with both music conditions in comparison to the control treatment. The qualitative data suggested that many participants viewed the music treatments to be a positive and enriching experience. There were several limiting factors in this study including a low and convenient sample size. Although it seems that music could be a valuable tool for improving mood in elderly persons, further research is needed to determine the specific differences between the effects of music listening versus expressive music making on mood

Relationships between cognitive status, speech impairment and communicative participation in Parkinson’s disease

Aim: To assess the relationships between cognitive status, speech impairment and communicative participation in Parkinson’s disease. Introduction: Speech and communication difficulties, as well as cognitive impairment, are prevalent in Parkinson’s. The contributions of cognitive impairment and acoustic speech characteristics remain equivocal. Relationships between Impairment and Participation levels of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) have not been thoroughly investigated. Methods: 45 people with Parkinson’s and 29 familiar controls performed read, mood and conversational speech tasks as part of a multimethod investigation. Data analysis formed three main parts. Depression, cognition and communication were assessed using questionnaires. Phonetic analysis was used to produce an acoustic characterisation of speech. Listener assessment was used to assess conveyance of emotion and intelligibility. Qualitative Content Analysis was used to provide a participant’s insight into speech and communicative difficulties associated with Parkinson’s disease. Results: Cognitive status was significantly associated with certain read speech acoustic characteristics, emotional conveyance and communicative participation. No association was found with intelligibility or conversational speech acoustic characteristics. The only acoustic speech characteristics that predicted intelligibility were intensity and pause in the read speech condition. The contribution of intelligibility to communicative participation was modest. People with Parkinson’s disease reported a range of psychosocial, cognitive and physical factors affecting their speech and communication. Conclusions: I provide evidence for a role for cognitive status in emotional conveyance and communicative participation, but not necessarily general speech production, in Parkinson’s disease. I demonstrate that there may not be a strong relationship between ICF Impairment level speech measures and functional measures of communication. I also highlight the distinction between measures of communication at the ICF Activity and Participation levels. This study demonstrates that reduced participation in everyday communication in Parkinson’s disease appears to result from a complex interplay of physical, cognitive and psychosocial factors. Further research is required to apply these findings to contribute to future advances in speech and language therapy for Parkinson’s disease

Role of Communication Competence in elderly care: A Caregivers’ Perspective

The aim of this thesis study is to explore through articles and journals the role of communication competence in elderly care: a caregivers’ perspective. The study used qualitative content analysis. Literature review method helped in the building of the central work whereby articles chosen for the study were summarized. The results from the chosen articles were further broken down into topics or subtopics. This thesis study was guided by the following research questions; (1) How does communication competence influence elderly care? (2) What role communication competence plays in creating interpersonal relationships between a care-giver and an elderly patient? The results indicate that healthcare in general is affected by communication. Lack of competency in communication by healthcare professionals affects health outcome of elderly patients. The findings also indicates that non-verbal mode of communication is not widely used although it is highly effective method of communication with patients who have problem with speech. In conclusion the authors noted that communication competence is not widely researched topic. Healthcare professionals do not take so much into account of the way they communicate with their patients and this adversely affects the health outcome of their patients.Tiivistelmä: Opinnäytetyön tarkoituksena on selvittää kommunikaatiotaitojen rooli vanhustyössä hoitajien näkökulmasta. Tutkimusmenetelmänä käytettiin laadullista tutkimusta, jonka avulla tutkimukseen valitut artikkelit koottiin yhteen. Tulokset valituista artikkeleista jäsenneltiin myöhemmin otsikoiksi ja alaotsikoiksi. Tätä opinnäytetyötä ohjasivat seuraavat tutkimuskysymykset: Mikä vaikutus kommunikaatiotaidoilla on vanhustyössä? Millainen rooli kommunikaatiotaidoilla on hoitajan ja vanhuksen välisen hoitosuhteen luomisessa? Tulokset osoittavat, että kommunikointi on keskeisessä roolissa hoitotyössä. Hoitotyön ammattilaisten kommunikaatiotaitojen puute vaikuttaa potilaiden terveyteen ja hoitotuloksiin. Tulosten myötä käy myös ilmi, että sanatonta viestintää ei käytetä yleisesti, vaikka se on hyvin tehokas kommunikointimetodi sellaisten potilaiden kanssa, joille puhuminen tuottaa vaikeuksia. Lopuksi voidaan todeta, että kommunikaatiotaitojen roolia hoitotyössä ei ole tutkittu kovin laajasti. Lisäksi terveydenhuollon ammattilaiset eivät juuri mieti millä tavalla he kommunikoivat potilaidensa kanssa. Tämä vaikuttaa haitallisesti potilaiden terveyteen ja hoidon tuloksiin

Is Hearing Loss Over-diagnosed Due To Impaired Cognition In Elderly Patients?

The prevalence of hearing loss due to old age is rapidly growing amongst the elderly population impacting over 450 million people worldwide making it the third most chronic disease (Lohler et al., 2019). While highly prevalent, hearing loss still remains one of the least studied factors, yet it has one of the greatest impacts on public health as 67% of adults age 70 and up have a hearing loss that impedes daily communication (Lin & Albert, 2014). Research has found a connection between hearing loss and cognitive deficits. People with hearing loss experience cognitive decline 30% to 40% faster than same-aged normal hearing adults (Lin et al., 2013). When hearing loss is properly diagnosed and treated, it can aid in the preservation of cognition and residual hearing and help to improve quality of life in the elderly population. The purpose of this small-scale study was to examine the professional practices and attitudes of 10 Hearing Instrument Specialists and 13 audiologists as it relates to the assessment of hearing in the elderly population. This study also examined whether or not there was a difference in the manner in which hearing professionals allow for challenges in behavioral testing of elderly clients, and to determine whether or not additional audiological assessment is sought for geriatric patients. The findings revealed no statistical difference between audiologists and HIS as it relates to hearing assessment of elderly people. Both hearing professionals rely on behavioral audiometry and are not likely to recommend elderly adults for additional audiological testing, even when the iv behavioral results are less than reliable. There are important clinical implications from these findings to gather more reliable data to improve hearing aid fittings so that elderly adults can improve their overall quality of life

The EEE corpus: socio-affective "glue" cues in elderly-robot interactions in a Smart Home with the EmOz platform

International audienceThe aim of this preliminary study of feasibility is to give a glance at interactions in a Smart Home prototype between the elderly and a companion robot that is having some socio-affective language primitives as the only vector of communication. The paper particularly focuses on the methodology and the scenario made to collect a spontaneous corpus of human-robot interactions. Through a Wizard of Oz platform (EmOz), which was specifically developed for this issue, a robot is introduced as an intermediary between the technological environment and some elderly who have to give vocal commands to the robot to control the Smart Home. The robot vocal productions increases progressively by adding prosodic levels: (1) no speech, (2) pure prosodic mouth noises supposed to be the "glue's" tools, (3) lexicons with supposed "glue" prosody and (4) subject's commands imitations with supposed "glue" prosody. The elderly subjects' speech behaviours confirm the hypothesis that the socio-affective "glue" effect increase towards the prosodic levels, especially for socio-isolated people. The actual corpus is still on recording process and is motivated to collect data from socio-isolated elderly in real need