Divided Attention in Experienced Young and Older Drivers: Lane Tracking and Visual Analysis in a Dynamic Driving Simulator

Abstract

A simulated driving task that required the simultaneous execution of two continuous visual tasks was administered to 12 healthy young (mean age 26.1 years) and 12 healthy older (mean age 64.4 years) experienced and currently active drivers. The first task was a compensatory lane-tracking task involving a three-dimensional road display. The second task was a timed, self-paced visual analysis task involving either a vocal or manual binary response to dot patterns projected within the road display. Using adaptive tasks, single-task difficulty was individually adjusted for each subject. To control for individual differences in attention allocation strategy, the dual task was performed according to three different sets of instructions based on the relative importance of each task. Compared with young adults, older adults showed a significantly decreased ability to divide attention. This effect was apparent in lane tracking and in the accuracy of visual analysis. The impairment of divided attention was less pronounced in the vocal condition than in the manual one. This suggests that difficulty in integrating responses may be an important determinant of poor dual-task performance in old age.

Miles away: determining the extent of secondary task interference on simulated driving

“…However, the type of secondary task used seems to differ with every researcher in the field. Various authors have used visual tasks (Brouwer, Waterink, van Wolffelaar and Rothengatter, 1991, Ephrath and Young, 1981, Verwey and Veltman, 1996, forced-choice tasks This is a preprint of an article submitted for consideration in the Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science © 2007 Taylor & Francis Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science is available online at: http://journalsonline.tandf.co.uk/ 3 . Miles away.…”

“…For instance, Verwey and Veltman (1996) found that while a visual secondary task was a good measure of short-term MWL peaks in driving, it also increased the frequency of steering corrections. Brouwer et al (1991) Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science is available online at: http://journalsonline.tandf.co.uk/ 4 . Miles away.…”

Feasibility of new simulation technology to train novice drivers

“…Subject (driver) response controls and accessories have included: joysticks (McKnight and McKnight, 1994); steering wheel with response buttons (Brouwer, Waterink, Van Wolffelaar, and Rothengatter, 1991); accelerator and brake pedals (Schiff and Oldak, 1993;Schiff, Arnone, and Cross, 1994); steering wheel with accelerator and brake pedals (Staplin, Lococo, and Sim, 1993;Gianutsos, 1994); self-incorporated unit with seat, instrument panel, steering wheel, and accelerator/brake pedals (Allen, Stein, Aponso, Rosenthal, and Hogue, 1990;Stein, Parseghian, Allen and Haynes, 1990); full vehicle cab with complete instrument panel and.steering wheel, accelerator, and brake pedals (Triggs and Drummond, 1993;Fraser, Hawken, and Warnes, 1994); and a proposed head-mounted-display with steering wheel, accelerator and brake pedals using a virtual environment system currently under development (Levine and Mourant, 1995). These studies examined the effects of visual and cognitive impairments, alcohol and fatigue levels, and other aging characteristics on several driving performance measures.…”

Accounting for time-dependent covariates in driving simulator studies

“…Driving simulators are widely used in human factors and transportation research to explore issues in driving behaviour, in part because of this capability. For example, driving simulators have been used to assess driving performance given medical impairments (Findley et al 1989, Rizzo et al 2001, age effects (Brouwer et al 1991, Syzlek et al 1995 and the use of new transportation systems ranging from roadway infrastructure to in-vehicle systems (Stanton et al 2001, Boyle andMannering 2004). All of these applications balance the need for realistic complexity and control.…”