Abstract

The concept of cognitive age refers to people’s tendency to view themselves as younger than they really are. Especially among elderly people this phenomenon is exceptionally strong. There have been few studies which investigated differences among elderly people concerning their self-perceived age in the context of IT adoption. However, to date it is not quite sure where the cognitive age originates from. This research focuses on justifications for the cognitive age to identify on which basis elderlies estimate their cognitive age. 8 seniors with various backgrounds were interviewed in southern Germany. The results show that seniors rather already have a rough estimation of their cognitive age, which does not necessarily is a sum of distinct dimensions as suggested by the literature.