The present study provided a multidimensional explanation of increased gap-selection difficulties with ageing, including a combination of perceptual, cognitive, as well as physical performance declines with increasing age. The findings have implications for improving older pedestrians' safety in terms of speed limits, road design, and training.

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The present results point to attentional deficits as well as physical limitations in older pedestrians. Several practical and have implications in terms of road design and pedestrian training are proposed.

The present study investigated the role of cognitive flexibility and vocabulary abilities in explaining age-related differences in information searching with a search engine. Nineteen older and 20 younger participants had to carry out nine searches and to complete a battery of cognitive tests. Older participants obtained poorer search performance with fewer correct answers, and lower task completion speed. They interacted little with the system, and showed specific difficulties in getting out of impasses and reformulating unfruitful requests. Regression analyses suggested that age differences in the number of requests were moderated by differences in cognitive flexibility and that the older participants did not leverage their increased vocabulary in producing new keywords. The findings suggest that the age-related decline in cognitive flexibility plays a role in the age-related differences observed in searching for information, especially in the way users get out of impasses. The results have implications for designing search engine tools.

a b s t r a c tAlthough old people make up an extremely vulnerable road-user group, older pedestrians' difficulties have been studied less extensively than those of older drivers, and more knowledge of this issue is still required. The present paper reviews current knowledge of older-adult problems with the main components of pedestrian activity, i.e., walking and obstacle negotiation, wayfinding, and road crossing. Compared to younger ones, old pedestrians exhibit declining walking skills, with a walking speed decrease, less stable balance, less efficient wayfinding strategies, and a greater number of unsafe road crossing behaviors. These difficulties are linked to age-related changes in sensorial, cognitive, physical, and self-perception abilities. It is now known that visual impairment, physical frailty, and attention deficits have a major negative impact on older pedestrians' safety and mobility, whereas the roles of self-evaluation and self-regulation are still poorly understood. All these elements must be taken into consideration, not only in developing effective safety interventions targeting older pedestrians, but also in designing roads and cars. Recent initiatives are presented here and some recommendations are proposed.