Situation Awareness: Does it Change With Age?

Abstract

The aim of this research project was to study age-related differences in our ability to perceive and abstract important information from the environment and to determine what physical and cognitive components are related to this ability. Young, middle and older adults completed several questionnaires, a battery of psychological tests, a standardized vision measure as well as several trials using a realistic driving simulator. A concurrent memory probe technique was used to measure participant's ability to attend to important information while driving. Their probe answers were checked against the actual simulator data and a composite situation awareness (SA) score was created. Results confirm the hypotheses that older adults have lower situation awareness when compared to younger and middle-aged adults. Factors that are related to this ability include useful field of view (UFOV), perceptual speed, driving experience and self-reported vision.