Early research on driving and aging established some general trends, in the accident rates and traffic behavior of older drivers. More recently, detailed information has been accumulated about their accident types, conditions, and characteristics. In the nineties, the focus of research has partly shifted from the average older driver towards certain important subgroups. In attempts to explain the accident risk of older drivers, researchers usually combine information about what is needed for driving, which functions change, and which kinds of accidents occur, based on: (1) a task analysis of driving; (2) gerontological data about aging changes in different functions; and (3) accident statistics. The mechanisms mediating the aging changes to driving performance are not very well understood. Single predictors of accidents tend to have problems with power and reliability because of the multidetermined nature of accidents and the difficulties in producing unbiased estimates of exposure. Traffic gerontology would profit from more theoretically oriented research efforts. To view and conceptualize driving as a complex skill rather than as an information processing task may be one way to generate testable research hypotheses and new insights. (A)
Samenvatting