Effects of Age and Auditory and Visual Dual-Tasks on Closed Road Driving Performance

The aim of this study was to understand how visual and auditory dual tasks impact upon the driving behavior of young and old participants. The effect of a secondary task on measures of driving performance including the recognition of road signs, detection and avoidance of large low contrast road hazards, judgment of cone gaps, and time to complete the course was assessed for young and older participants as they drove around a 5 km closed road driving course. The secondary task required participants to verbally report the sums of pairs of numbers presented either through a computer speaker (auditorially) or via a dashboard mounted monitor (visually) while driving. The results show that drivers reported fewer road signs, increased their time to complete the road course, and misjudged cone gaps more frequently under the dual-task (visual and auditory) conditions compared to the single task condition and these effects were greater for the older participants.

[1]  H Kantowitz,et al.  Testing tapping timesharing, II: Auditory secondary task. , 1976, Acta psychologica.

[2]  Peter J. Cooper.  Elderly drivers' views of self and driving in relation to the evidence of accident data , 1990 .

[3]  Arthur F. Kramer,et al.  Aging and dual-task performance. , 1996 .

[4]  John F. Larish,et al.  Training for attentional control in dual task settings: A comparison of young and old adults , 1995 .

[5]  C. Johnson,et al.  Visual function, driving safety, and the elderly. , 1987, Ophthalmology.

[6]  N Stamatiadis,et al.  Trends in highway safety: effects of an aging population on accident propensity. , 1995, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[7]  A J McKnight,et al.  The effect of cellular phone use upon driver attention. , 1993, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[8]  A.J. Kames.  A study of the effects of mobile telephone use and control unit design on driving performance , 1978, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology.

[9]  C. Frith,et al.  The Role of Working Memory in Visual Selective Attention , 2001, Science.

[10]  K. Ball,et al.  Vision impairment, eye disease, and injurious motor vehicle crashes in the elderly. , 1998, Ophthalmic epidemiology.

[11]  Lena Nilsson,et al.  Elderly people and mobile telephone use : effects on driver behaviour? , 1991 .

[12]  E. Viding,et al.  Load theory of selective attention and cognitive control. , 2004, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[13]  Raymond J. Shaw,et al.  Attention and Aging: A Functional Perspective , 2000 .

[14]  R. Wade Allen,et al.  A simulator study of the safety implications of cellular mobile phone use , 1987 .

[15]  I. Brown,et al.  Interference between concurrent tasks of driving and telephoning. , 1969, The Journal of applied psychology.

[16]  D. Strayer,et al.  Cell phone-induced failures of visual attention during simulated driving. , 2003, Journal of experimental psychology. Applied.

[17]  P. Rabbitt,et al.  AN AGE-DECREMENT IN THE ABILITY TO IGNORE IRRELEVANT INFORMATION. , 1965, Journal of gerontology.

[18]  Charles Zegeer,et al.  Traffic operations control for older drivers , 1995 .

[19]  M. Sloane,et al.  Visual processing impairment and risk of motor vehicle crash among older adults. , 1998, JAMA.

[20]  David L. Strayer,et al.  Driven to Distraction: Dual-Task Studies of Simulated Driving and Conversing on a Cellular Telephone , 2001, Psychological science.

[21]  M. A. Recarte,et al.  Mental workload while driving: effects on visual search, discrimination, and decision making. , 2003, Journal of experimental psychology. Applied.

[22]  Linda Wetzel,et al.  Development and assessment of a neuropsychological battery to aid in predicting driving performance. , 2002, Journal of rehabilitation research and development.

[23]  D. Roenker,et al.  Age and visual search: expanding the useful field of view. , 1988, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics and image science.

[24]  J. Wood,et al.  Effect of Visual Impairment on Driving , 1994, Human factors.

[25]  Beth T. Stalvey,et al.  Driving avoidance and functional impairment in older drivers. , 1998, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[26]  K. Ball,et al.  Visual attention problems as a predictor of vehicle crashes in older drivers. , 1993, Investigative ophthalmology & visual science.

[27]  D. Kahneman.  Attention and Effort , 1973 .

[28]  John Vavrik,et al.  Effect of a Concurrent Auditory Task on Visual Search Performance in a Driving-Related Image-Flicker Task , 2002, Hum. Factors.

[29]  Lena Nilsson.  Behavioural Research in an Advanced Driving Simulator - Experiences of the VTI System - , 1993 .

[30]  A F Williams,et al.  Fatal crash risk for older drivers at intersections. , 1998, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[31]  G McGwin,et al.  Characteristics of traffic crashes among young, middle-aged, and older drivers. , 1999, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[32]  M. Legge,et al.  Age related changes in drivers' crash risk and crash type. , 1998, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[33]  R. Tibshirani,et al.  Association between cellular-telephone calls and motor vehicle collisions. , 1997, The New England journal of medicine.

[34]  Min-Shik Kim,et al.  Visual Search Does Not Remain Efficient When Executive Working Memory Is Working , 2004, Psychological science.