This dissertation, "Effects of Computer Presentation Formats on Learning Among Elderly and Younger Adults: the Role of Cognitive Abilities" by Yee-man, Shai, 佘綺雯, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Abstract of thesis entitled "Effects of Computer Presentation Formats on Learning among Elderly and Younger Adults: The Role of Cognitive Abilities" Submitted by SHAI Yee Man for the Degree of Master of Philosophy at The University of Hong Kong in January 2006 Although multimedia learning has been shown to benefit college students, the effects of such multi-modal presentation on the elderly are not clear yet. The generally impaired cognitive functions, especially working memory capacity and processing speed, of older adults may result in differences between the facilitation of multi-modal presentation on younger and older people. Since more and more elderly people are using computer nowadays, it is important to identify their limitations so as to provide more appropriate interface for them. The first experiment of this study was an explorative investigation aimed to reveal the effects of three presentation formats, namely text only, text plus narration and graphics plus narration, on verbal recall and problem-solving transfer among highly educated younger adults and older adults with higher and lower education. And the second experiment further investigated the respective effects of text-only and text plus narration presentations under more specific conditions, with either shorter or longer sentences and slower or faster presentation speed. Moreover, it aimed to reveal the relationship between certain cognitive abilities, measured by forward and backward digit spans and naming latency, and the task performance. Results of Experiment 1 showed that text plus narration presentation had greater facilitation on problem transfer performance among older participants regardless of education level. In Experiment 2, shorter sentence length could enhance recall and problem transfer performance among the elderly. Similarly, older adults had better retention and understanding with slower presentation. Further analyses by multiple regression revealed that age might be a moderator of the relationship between cognitive abilities and learning performance. The independent cognitive measures accounted for more performance variance in the older groups. And backward digit span was found to be more predictive of problem transfer rather than recall performance. However, since age was highly correlated to the cognitive measures, it remained as a dominant predictor on both recall and transfer performance when younger and older groups were combined in the analysis. The findings of this study support that multi-modal presentation can help online learning among the elderly. And reduced working memory capacity and processing speed were identified as the limiting factors for older adults, particularly in transfer tasks. This implied that computer presentation with narration, shorter sentences and slower presenting rate can enhance retention and learning among older adults to the greatest extent. Implications of these findings for the design of appropriate computer interfaces for the elderly are also discussed. DOI: 10.5353/th_b3580444 Subjects: Human-computer interaction - Psychological aspects Computer-assisted instruction - Psychological aspects Cognition in old age Memory - Age factors