The aim of this research project was to study age-related differences while driving and to determine what physical and cognitive components are related to this ability. Young, middle-aged and older adults completed a driving and health survey, a battery of psychological tests, a standardised vision measure, and several trials using a realistic driving simulator. A concurrent memory probe technique was used to measure participant ability to attend to important information while driving. Participants were randomly stopped and then were explicitly cued to recall what was important to their driving task at the exact moment of the stop, such as current speed or lane position. The answers were checked against the actual simulator data and composite score was created. Results supported the hypothesis that older adults have more difficulty attending to important information while driving when compared to younger and middle-aged adults. Factors that are related to this ability include useful field of view (UFOV), perception speed, driving experience, self-reported vision and gender. (A)
Abstract