AN INVESTIGATION OF AGE-RELATED CHANGES IN DRIVERS VISUAL SEARCH PATTERNS AND DRIVING PERFORMANCE AND THE RELATION TO TESTS OF BASIC FUNCTIONAL CAPACITIES

Thirteen aged (60's) and ten young (20's) subjects performed on-the-road driving tasks. Subjects also performed psychomotor lab tasks. The road tests were: a task in which drivers voluntarily closed their eyes as much as possible; and a task which driver's eye fixations were recorded. The lab tests were rapid tapping between targets, (motor capacity), and an embedded figures test (perceptual skill). The lab tests showed much poorer scores for the aged. On the road, aged drivers opened their eyes much longer (visual occlusion task), and had larger mean visual travel distances between fixations (degrees). The results suggested aged drivers required longer times and searched more cues to obtain adequate information. Lab and road scores were correlated. Some aged performed at the same level as younger. /Author/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Human Factors Society Annual Meeting, Proceedings (19th).
• Corporate Authors:

  Pennsylvania State University, University Park

  Department of Engineering Mechanics
  University Park, PA  United States  16802
• Authors:
  • Rackoff, N J
• Publication Date: 1975-10-14

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 285-288

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Age; Drivers; Eye fixations; Laboratory tests; Motor skills; Perception; Road tests
• Uncontrolled Terms: Driver age; Psychomotor performance; Visual search
• Old TRIS Terms: Driver perception
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00142007
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Safety Council Safety Research Info Serv
• Report/Paper Numbers: Proceeding
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 31 1977 12:00AM