Age Related Differences in Driving Performance and Target Identification

Abstract

We investigated the effects of age and simulated driving scenario complexity (low, high) on measures of driving performance and on a peripheral letter detection and identification task. The right and left turn signals were used to indicate whether a letter was or was not part of a three letter target set, respectively. The participants were 12 younger (ages 18–41) and 12 older individuals (64–85). Complexity was manipulated by varying the number of stoplights that could potentially turn red as a participant approached an intersection and the number of obstacles (e.g. other traffic, intersections etc). The results showed that older subjects drove slower overall, had more difficulty controlling the simulator when navigating curves, had more accidents, and identified fewer target letters than the younger participants. As the complexity of the scenario increased the older participants showed a disproportionate increase in accidents and a marginally significantly (p <.06) greater decrease in peripheral letter identification than the younger drivers.