Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes: Problematic Measurement of Attitude in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)

• In Event: Practical application of quantitative methods

Abstract

Attitude is a critical component of the oft-used Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) that predicts a user’s behavioral intention to use a particular technology (Davis, 1989). The problem is that a number of studies using TAM have faced measurement difficulties for the attitude variable as measured using the recommended instruments for the TAM model. We examine some of the analytical difficulties caused by the problematic measurement of attitude within the TAM while presenting results from this study of the potential to use Virtual Reality (VR) in education—specifically, college student’s intention to use VR technology to learn about environmental topics, like the last tropical glaciers. Our conclusions are primarily that researchers must pay more critical attention to measurement issues than often seems to happen in practice, whether using observed variable analyses or latent variable analyses.

Authors

• Nina Adanin, Northwest Missouri State University

• Frank Agyemang Oppong, Ohio University

• James Sika-Pokoo, Ohio University

• Gordon Brooks, Ohio University