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PLoS One. 2016 Oct 13;11(10):e0164124. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0164124. eCollection 2016.

Age-Related Differences in Vehicle Control and Eye Movement Patterns at Intersections: Older and Middle-Aged Drivers.

Author information

1
Department of Psychology, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, United States of America.
2
Center for Behavioral Science, Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, Hopkinton, MA, United States of America.
3
Department of Industrial and Mechanical Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, United States of America.
4
Volpe National Transportation Center, Cambridge, MA, United States of America.

Abstract

Older drivers are at increased risk of intersection crashes. Previous work found that older drivers execute less frequent glances for detecting potential threats at intersections than middle-aged drivers. Yet, earlier work has also shown that an active training program doubled the frequency of these glances among older drivers, suggesting that these effects are not necessarily due to age-related functional declines. In light of findings, the current study sought to explore the ability of older drivers to coordinate their head and eye movements while simultaneously steering the vehicle as well as their glance behavior at intersections. In a driving simulator, older (M = 76 yrs) and middle-aged (M = 58 yrs) drivers completed different driving tasks: (1) travelling straight on a highway while scanning for peripheral information (a visual search task) and (2) navigating intersections with areas potential hazard. The results replicate that the older drivers did not execute glances for potential threats to the sides when turning at intersections as frequently as the middle-aged drivers. Furthermore, the results demonstrate costs of performing two concurrent tasks, highway driving and visual search task on the side displays: the older drivers performed more poorly on the visual search task and needed to correct their steering positions more compared to the middle-aged counterparts. The findings are consistent with the predictions and discussed in terms of a decoupling hypothesis, providing an account for the effects of the active training program.

Conflict of interest statement

Authors declare no competing interests in this work. Commercial affiliations with the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety and Arbella Insurance Charitable Foundation do not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

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