Simulated traffic and auditory information: The impact on street crossing in young and old adults

This study aimed at investigating the influence of auditory information and ageing on street-crossing decisions, using a virtual environment. Four auditory contexts were tested: (1) no sounds at all; (2) only the sounds from the simulated vehicles; (3) only an ambient auditory context composed of traffic sounds; and (4) the sounds from the simulated vehicles + the ambient context. Young and older participants were evaluated on their performance regarding the safety margins during the simulated street-crossing task. The results indicated that a full privation of auditory information significantly increased the participants' unsafe behaviour. They also point to a global benefit from auditory information on the participants’ decisions, irrespective of its type. Finally, no age-related differences were observed. The findings support the idea that auditory information is an important experimental factor when simulating traffic and investigating street crossing in virtual environments. The results are discussed regarding the psychological notion of presence.

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