“Choking Under Pressure” in Older Drivers

Abstract

Summary:Aging can impair executive control and emotion regulation, affecting driver decision-making and behavior, especially under stress. We used an interactive driving simulator to investigate ability to make safe left-turns across oncoming traffic under pressure in 13 older (> 65 years old) and 16 middle-aged (35-56 years old) drivers. Drivers made left-turns at an uncontrolled intersection with moderately heavy oncoming traffic. Gaps between oncoming vehicles varied and increased gradually from 2 s to 10 s. Drivers made two left-turns with a vehicle honking aggressively behind (pressure condition), and two left-turns without the honking vehicle (control condition). Results showed that middle-aged drivers made more cautious turning decisions under pressure (by waiting for larger and safer gaps, p < .001), but older drivers did not. Further, older driver turning paths deviated under pressure compared to the control condition (p < .05), but the middle-aged group did not. Moreover, across all subjects, better executive function was significantly correlated with larger increases of accepted gap size from control to honking (p < .01). The findings suggest that older drivers are more sensitive to traffic challenges from environmental pressure and that neural models of older driver performance and safety must factor in age-related changes in executive control and emotion processing.

The impact of cognitive functioning on driving performance of older persons in comparison to younger age groups: A systematic review

“…Older drivers also experienced more 191 crashes than younger drivers during simulated driving (Belanger et al, 2015;Belanger et al, 2010;Michaels et al, 2017;Park et al, 2011). Finally, older drivers demonstrated poorer lane keeping behavior, with larger variability in lane position or deviation from the road, compared to younger drivers (Bunce et al, 2012;Chen et al, 2013;Eudave et al, 2018;Fofanova & Vollrath, 2011;Karthaus et al, 2018b;Ledger et al, 2019;Liu & Ou, 2011;Rodrick et al, 2013;Son et al, 2011;Wechsler et al, 2018). More information on the used driving simulator protocols and driving variables can be found in the supplementary tables 4-6.…”

“…Cognitive function was assessed using various neuropsychological tests in 11 studies (Alonso et al, 2016;Andrews & Westerman, 2012;Belanger et al, 2015;Belanger et al, 2010;Bunce et al, 2012;Chen et al, 2013;Eudave et al, 2018;Ledger et al, 2019;Michaels et al, 2017;Park et al, 2011;Stinchcombe et al, 2011). According to the classification of Lezak et al (2012) and Strauss et al (2006), the neuropsychological tests were classified into 6 cognitive domains (Lezak et al, 2012;Strauss et al, 2006).…”

Augmented reality cues to assist older drivers with gap estimation for left-turns

“…Further research that involves more replication of actual drive time would help to strengthen our argument. Factors such as an obstructed view or the presence of a tailing vehicle could also play a role in the driver's choice of when to go (Chen et al, 2013; Dawson et al, 2013). The current study did not explore such scenarios as we did not manipulate distraction (e.g., dual-task performance) or social pressure.…”

Benefits of Higher Cardiovascular and Motor Coordinative Fitness on Driving Behavior Are Mediated by Cognitive Functioning: A Path Analysis

“…A recent systematic review also found that cognitive functions associated with driving behavior in younger and older adults were quite inconsistent across studies (Depestele et al, 2020). For older adults, some studies demonstrated such a relationship (Andrews and Westerman, 2012), while others did not (Park et al, 2011;Chen et al, 2013;Eudave et al, 2018). Varying relationships between cognitive functions and driving parameters might be attributed to different driving settings, task designs, and outcome measures (Park et al, 2011;Bunce et al, 2012;Eudave et al, 2018).…”