Simulator Sickness Scores According to Symptom Susceptibility, Age, and Gender for an Older Driver Assessment Study

Abstract

The incidence and severity of simulator sickness results for an older driver assessment study is reported. The data from a total of 118 participants comprised of 67 older drivers (aged 70-90; 37 male, 30 female) and 51 younger drivers (age 21-50; 22 male, 29 female) was used for this study. The primary objective of this project was to develop a PC-based program in conjunction with a low-cost driving simulator that can be used for screening and potentially retraining the psychomotor, attentional, and cognitive skills of older drivers. A large range of sensory, perceptual, psychomotor, and cognitive tests were provided to validate the driving simulator and/or provide a comprehensive older driver assessment test battery. Simulator sickness ratings after 5 driving simulator sessions were obtained using the Kennedy, Lane, Berbaum, and Lilienthal (1993) Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ). Dropout and scenario completion rates suggest a higher symptom incidence for older drivers, particularly older female drivers. Scenario design effects are also discussed as it relates to dropout rates. SSQ analysis using nausea, oculomotor, and disorientation subscales across driving simulator sessions were performed for dropout participants and non-dropout participants. Contrary to dropout rates, no age effects were found in the SSQ data. No gender differences were found within the dropout group, but found in the non-dropout group for nausea and oculomotor scores. No relationship was found between contrast sensitivity and simulator sickness.

Slower adaptation to driving simulator and simulator sickness in older adults Aging Clinical and Experimental Research

“…In addition, as 17.6% of our elderly drivers dropped out of the study because of SS, this result corroborates previous research (10,11,14). Brooks et al speculat a a ed that one explanation of SS is the increased balance and dizziness problems experienced with aging (10).…”

“…Daily driving skills associated with traffic accidents were measured by a road-tracking task, which required participants to drive at a constant speed of 100 km/h while maintaining their vehicles at the center of a gently winding road. According to Park et al, SS emerges at a high rate in this ty t t pe of DS situation, which includes high speed and multiple turns (14).…”

Narrative and Gaming Experience Interact to Affect Presence and Cybersickness in Virtual Reality

“…While a variety of studies have found that levels of presence are higher either for women (Gamito et al, 2008) or for men (Felnhofer et al, 2012;Lachlan & Krcmar, 2011;Nicovich et al, 2005;Slater et al, 1998), our results agree with other research that found no effect of sex on presence ratings (De Leo et al, 2014). At the same time, while women tend to demonstrate higher cybersickness magnitude than men (De Leo et al, 2014;Häkkinen et al, 2002;Jaeger & Mourant, 2011;Park et al, 2006), the data obtained in our study agree with the work of others who identified no sex differences in cybersickness (Knight & Arns, 2006;Gamito et al, 2008;Ling et al, 2013).…”

Concurrent audio-visual feedback for supporting drivers at intersections: A study using two linked driving simulators

“…Furthermore, in our experiment, about a quarter of the participants (8 of 33) dropped out because of simulator sickness, and their data were not used in the analyses. Such dropout rates are not uncommon in simulator research, especially in city driving tasks where occurrences of visual-vestibular conflict are likely (Mourant and Thattacherry, 2000;Park et al, 2006). We advised participants to not continue driving if they experienced symptoms of simulator sickness, and all eight dropouts left the experiment early (either in the training session, or in Session 1 or 2), suggesting that the remaining participants were not severely affected.…”