Age Differences in the Relationship Between Driver's Visuomotor Coordination Function and Driving Skills

In this study, the authors investigate the relationship between basic driving skills and visuomotor coordination characteristics related to the use of tools. Before driving experiments, 20 younger and 20 older drivers participated in two visuomotor tracking tasks in order to measure these abilities (Ueda et al., 2013). Based on their performance on visuomotor tracking tasks, the participants were classified into one skilled and two unskilled groups (deficient effector navigation group and deficient internal model group). In the experiments, the authors measured their driving performance in speed keeping, lateral positioning, and stopping maneuvers on test courses. Results indicated that the two unskilled groups had different skills, especially in speed reduction. Drivers of the deficient internal model group were unable to maintain the specified speed and to drive in the center of the lane of both courses. The vehicle speed of the deficient effector navigation group was lower, and their lateral position changed more than that of the skilled group on only the curved course. Older drivers drove more slowly and with greater variation than younger drivers. Specifically, the authors observed a difference between coordination characteristics in deceleration control for older drivers. To control the vehicle, drivers used the perceptual information and internal model of the vehicle and self-operation. These results suggest that the accuracy and function of the two systems differed between the two unskilled groups. Moreover, a difference was observed between speed maintenance control of young drivers and deceleration control of older drivers. The authors concluded that older drivers and younger drivers may have the same performance on a visuomotor coordination task but may use different strategies.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AND10 Vehicle User Characteristics.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Yonemura, Tomoko
  • Sato, Toshihisa
  • Akamatsu, Motoyuki
  • Kimura, Yoshikatsu
  • Kurahashi, Tetsuo
  • Fujieda, Nobushige
  • Inoue, Satoshi
  • Kumada, Takatsune
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2015-1-11 to 2015-1-15
• Date: 2015

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; Photos; References;
• Pagination: 14p
• Monograph Title: TRB 94th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Age groups; Aged drivers; Driver performance; Motor skills; Speed; Vision; Visual perception
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01556839
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 15-4169
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 12 2015 3:19PM