Previous studies have mainly focused on tailoring message content to match individual characteristics and preferences. This study investigates the effect of a website tailored to individual preferences for the mode of information presentation, compared to 4 nontailored websites on younger and older adults' attention and recall of information, employing a 5 (condition: tailored vs. text, text with illustrations, audiovisual, combination) × 2 (age:younger
vs. older [≥65] adults) design (N = 559). The mode-tailored condition (relative to nontailored conditions) improved attention to the website and, consequently, recall in older adults, but not in younger adults. Younger adults recalled more from nontailored information such as text only or text with illustrations, relative to tailored information.Keywords: Modality, Tailoring, Mode of Presentation, Older Adults, Aging, Attention, Processing, Memory, Information Recall, Multimodal Information. doi:10.1111/hcre.12097 Until now, online tailoring studies have mainly focused on adjusting the content of a message to match recipients' individual characteristics (e.g., demographics) and preferences (e.g., relevant topics). Tailoring, or providing information that is relevant to one unique person and their situation, is proposed to be more effective than generic and static information (Rimer & Kreuter, 2006). Although content tailoring (Rimer & Kreuter, 2006) has led to positive results, for example, in the health domain, the effect sizes have been small (Noar, Benac, & Harris, 2007). Therefore, novel tailoring strategies are strongly encouraged as a way to increase message effectiveness (Smit, Linn, & Van Weert, 2015).Corresponding author: Minh Hao Nguyen; e-mail: m.h.nguyen@uva.nl This article was accepted for publication under the editorship of Dr. John Courtright.
Mode-Tailored Online InformationOne way to move beyond content tailoring is to tailor online information to individual preferences for the modality (i.e., mode) of information presentation . In this study, we refer to "mode tailoring" as adjusting information to match individual preferences for presentation modality, using verbal (text), visual (static illustrations), and/or audiovisual (videos) information (Mayer, 2001). Mode tailoring is important, as the way in which message content is processed and remembered very much depends on how this information is being delivered (Kreuter, Oswald, Bull, & Clark, 2000;Ritterband, Thorndike, Cox, Kovatchev, & Gonder-Frederick, 2009). The ability to correctly remember and reproduce information is often referred to as recall of information (Jansen et al., 2008;Lang, 2000). Subsequently, this study empirically tests the effect of exposure to a website that can be tailored to individual preferences for the mode of information presentation on attention and recall of information.Mode tailoring may be especially relevant for target groups that may have difficulties processing and remembering online information, such as older adults. Older adults represent the most ra...