The present study investigated age-related characteristics of visual attention by employing a useful field of view (UFOV) format with a procedure consisting of a central target letter identification task and a peripheral target regularity discrimination task. This study aimed to examine the effects of aging on UFOV performance as well as the relationship between accident history and UFOV performance. Using divided and focused attention designs, the performance of participants in two age groups (younger, older) was examined in the central-task and the peripheral-task as a function of the participants' accident histories (accident-free vs. accident-involved). The results indicated that the cost of divided attention was most evident in the peripheral-task and was significantly greater for older than younger participants. In particular, older participants had more difficulty processing events that were not part of their typical scan pattern. The results suggest that UFOV performance might function as an independent indicator of accident risk for younger adults. For older adults, evaluation of the UFOV performance in combination with self-regulation and self-assessment of driving behavior might be better indicators of accident risk. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting