The study investigated if a driver's age affects the detection of change in driving-related images. A lack of perception, or inability to detect large changes in scenes from one view to the next, has been termed change blindness. A touch screen computer presented the images for a maximum duration of 10 seconds. Half of the images presented included a gradually changing element, and half remained static. Participants were instructed to identify manually the change on the screen, or to depress the spacebar if no change had occurred. It was found that older drivers (N = 13, 54% male, mean age 68.5 years) were less accurate (t36 = 5.445, p < .001), displayed greater response times (t36 = -2.67, p < .05), and produced more false positive responses (t36 = -2.754, p < .01) than younger drivers (N = 25, 68% female, mean age 22.3 years).
Abstract