Congrats to recent AD&D Lab Ph.D. graduate, Xiaoqing Wan, Dr. Lighthall, and UCF Statistics and Data Science colleague, Dr. Rui Xie, on their paper: “Consistent and Robust Predictors of Internet Use among Older Adults over Time Identified by Machine Learning” — which is in press at the journal of Computers in Human Behavior.
This study investigated robust predictors of Internet use among older adults over 14 years using machine learning and a large, representative U.S. sample. Results identified cognition and socioeconomics as top predictors of Internet use among older Americans in data from 2002 and 2016. Key cognitive predictors included memory and visuospatial abilities. Machine learning also revealed new predictors of Internet use in older adults, such as alcohol use, which may reflect sensation seeking as an underlying causal mechanism.
