“Choking Under Pressure” in Older Drivers

Aging can impair executive control and emotion regulation, affecting driver decision-making and behavior, especially under stress. The drivers used an interactive driving simulator to investigate ability to make safe left-turns across oncoming traffic under pressure in 13 older (> 65 years old) and 16 middle-aged (35-56 years old) drivers. Drivers made left-turns at an uncontrolled intersection with moderately heavy oncoming traffic. Gaps between oncoming vehicles varied and increased gradually from 2 s to 10 s. Drivers made two left-turns with a vehicle honking aggressively behind (pressure condition), and two left-turns without the honking vehicle (control condition). Results showed that middle-aged drivers made more cautious turning decisions under pressure (by waiting for larger and safer gaps, p < .001), but older drivers did not. Further, older driver turning paths deviated under pressure compared to the control condition (p < .05), but the middle-aged group did not. Moreover, across all subjects, better executive function was significantly correlated with larger increases of accepted gap size from control to honking (p < .01). The findings suggest that older drivers are more sensitive to traffic challenges from environmental pressure and that neural models of older driver performance and safety must factor in age-related changes in executive control and emotion processing.

• Record URL:
  http://drivingassessment.uiowa.edu/sites/default/files/DA2013/Papers/066_Rizzo_0.pdf
• 
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9780615819723
• Corporate Authors:

  University of Iowa, Iowa City

  Public Policy Center
  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  Iowa City, IA  United States  52242-1192
• Authors:
  • Chen, Kuan-Hua
  • Anderson, Steven W
  • Rusch, Michelle L
  • Aksan, Nazan S
  • Dawson, Jeffrey D
  • Rizzo, Matthew
• Conference:
  • 7th International Driving Symposium on Human Factors in Driver Assessment, Training, and Vehicle Design
  • Location: Bolton Landing New York, United States
  • Date: 2013-6-17 to 2013-6-20
• Publication Date: 2013

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 7p
• Monograph Title: Driving Assessment 2013: Proceedings of the 7th International Driving Symposium on Human Factors in Driver Assessment, Training, and Vehicle Design

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aged drivers; Aging (Biology); Behavior; Decision making; Gap acceptance; Highway safety; Left turns; Stress (Psychology)
• Uncontrolled Terms: Middle aged drivers
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I80: Accident Studies;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01493888
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9780615819723
• Report/Paper Numbers: 66
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 24 2013 9:12AM