Chapter 4 - Age-sensitive well-being support: Design of interactive technologies that modulate internal–external attentional focus for improved cognitive balance and behavioral effectiveness

Abstract

Many age-specific mental health problems can be related to maladaptive cognitive strategies for engaging with and processing the external environment in relation to self-perception and ego identity. These are essentially attentional balance problems, reflected in maladjustments of the subjective sense of presence in the external world. We present a theoretical rationale for well-being design that takes account of developmental changes, including cognitive aging, sleep, and the sense of presence. For example, young children may suffer from attentional problems, where events in the immediate environment are overly distracting. We see this as an overactive presence mechanism, or hyperpresence. As people become older, more waking time is spent in reminiscence and daydreaming. Eventually, the ability to give timely attention to the environment, as needed to carry out intentions, may become lost in hyperabsence. We specify several practical strategies for designing interactive technologies to help alleviate cognitive and behavioral problems, by restoring a more balanced relation between individual and environment.