Age Differences in Judgements of Vehicle Velocity and Distance

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if older adults have more difficulty than younger adults in judging either the distance or speed of approaching vehicles. Eighteen elderly and 27 younger adults made judgements of the speed and distance of a video-taped automobile. Velocity judgements were made of 5 s segments of the car moving at 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 mph. Distance judgements were based on 5 static sequences of the same test vehicle at 190, 235, 300, 360, and 480 ft. It was found that older women gave significantly higher estimates of car velocity than did younger ones. Older males also gave disproportionately high estimates of the car's distance. To the extent that these simulation data can be generalized to real-life settings, they suggest that older drivers and pedestrians (particularly older males) would view it as relatively safer than younger drivers to enter or cross the lane of an approaching car. Future research might be directed to a determination of age differences in distance perception under three-dimensional viewing conditions.

Age differences in estimating vehicle velocity.

“…In contrast to Hills and Johnson's data, slopes did not vary across the age groups; however, intercepts were significantly higher in older adults, indicating that the elderly judged cars to be traveling more quickly than was judged by the young. To the extent that velocity estimates from two-dimensional scenes can be generalized to roadway settings, the Scialfa et al (1987) data could be used to argue that velocity estimation per se does not differentially contribute to the accident profile of older adults, because the errors would be expected to lead to more conservative driving actions. Still, it is obvious that further work is needed.…”

Useful visual field training: A way to improve elderly car drivers’ ability to detect vulnerable road users

“…Other researchers have concluded that the deterioration of the useful visual field with ageing leads to tunnel vision (i.e. older people always have a lower performance than younger people, and the difference in performance becomes more pronounced as the eccentricity of the signal to be detected increases) (Ball, Roenker, & Bruni, 1990;Ball et al, 1988;Scialfa, Kline, Lyman, & Kosnik, 1987;Sekuler & Ball, 1986). A similar impact of age on the ability to detect visual signals in tests carried out using a computer has been observed in experiments based on driving tasks.…”

“…This result confirmed our first hypothesis that specific training in driving would lead to an increase in drivers' visual field. A review of the literature on the useful visual field highlighted the fact that the variables which lead to a deterioration of the useful visual field can result in either general interference if the deterioration is homogenous across the visual field (Seiple et al, 1996;Sekuler et al, 2000) or in tunnel vision if the deterioration becomes more marked as the degree of eccentricity of the signal to be detected increases (Ball et al, 1988(Ball et al, , 1990Rogé et al, 2003Rogé et al, , 2004Scialfa, Kline, Lyman, & Kosnik, 1987;Sekuler & Ball, 1986). Similarly, we can conclude that the training given to elderly drivers leads to an 'overall improvement' in their useful visual field.…”

Biomechanics of side impact: Injury criteria, aging occupants, and airbag technology

“…For example, age affects the judgment of the velocity of the approaching vehicle and distance (Scialfa et al, 1987).…”