Effects of Age and Driving Complexity - PowerPoint Presentation Example

?Introduction Presently, older drivers’ population exhibits a fast increasing trend whereby Western s alone represent 12-15%, with Canada havinga segment of 13.2% (above 65 years). Studies so far contacted cite this segment will shift from 12-15% to 25% of the total licensed population despite the older people exhibiting certain serious difficulties while driving. Some of these difficulties encompass misjudgments, crashes (merging, angle & intersection), not being able to overtake appropriately (maneuvering). Consequently, this prompts them cause more accidents compared to the young generation drivers who at their prime years are capable of undertaking certain actions while driving with heightened precision. Based on the recent studies, phone interviews revealed 227 older drivers (70-79) were involved in non-fatal misjudgment accidents, whereas those aged 80+ reporting of “looking but not seeing” clearly. There are numerous methods meant for evaluating errors that result to mental workload though in this case the adopted procedure is secondary subsidiary task. The method entailed drivers to maintain driving performance, which is primary task. Secondary task’s purpose entailed to measure mental workload imposed by varied intensities of driving to alter drivers’ performance. Results of varied complexities show mental workload normally increases with context of driving taken individual though their age determined how they reacted to certain tasks, for instance, straight or maneuver driving. Method Participants This study enrolled ten young men aged between 20 – 31 years with an average age of 24 years and ten older drivers with a mean age of 69 years though their encompassed 65 – 75 years. Modes of recruitment in this study encompassed advertisement, taking students from academic community of Laval University for both elderly and young people respectively. Afterwards participants upon completion of requireme4nts’ briefing they underwent clinical tests besides filling questionnaires. This ensured there were no incidences of biasness coupled with recruiting only active drivers. Apparatus It encompassed using fully interactive driving simulator having programmable software capable of developing drive scenarios and document drivers’ performance. Other minor devices comprise the core apparatus include, Projector Digital input/output board Electronic microphone Procedure At starting, drivers were to make themselves conversant with the necessary apparatus meant to measure any alterations. This is by being able, To have adequate control of the vehicle as well as responding to the auditory stimuli within the shortest time possible. Have adequate control of secondary reaction time (RT) In familiarizing themselves with simulator, participants were to drive a distance of 12 Km with less graphical information. In addition, the experimenters informed the participants would have an impact of nausea feeling on them so that they could make the alarm early with no consequences. The simulator was in form of a cabin and maintained with a temperature of 170C. Driving scenario Driving entailed participants to have a continuous scenario of 26.4 KM coupled with, Adhering to traffic rules There were no left or right turn maneuver at intersections Moderate curves (120m) Driving environment comprised of 2-way and 4- way in both rural and urban areas. Lane widths and markings were as per governmental stipulations besides advised to follow speed limits. Mental Workload measurement Stimulation setting was in three diverse contexts for effective measurement within an overall driving distance of 26.4 Km. There were three scenarios totaling to 36 complex scenarios encompassed, 1. Driving on straight line at constant speed (n=16) Mental workload in this scenario was low because there were minimal interactions with other road users. 2. Nearing intersections where the driver had to stop (n=15) Workload was high due to the increased processing of varied information meant to comply with the traffic rules as well as control the vehicle even among the young drivers. 3. When overtaking slower vehicle (n=5) Data analyses Aspects considered during RT data analysis encompassed, Reaction Time Driving performance This was carried out using dependent variables retrieved directly from the simulator or done with a Matlab. It also entailed analyzing data for the based on the three contexts using one-way ANOVA group comparisons. Results Mental Work Load ANOVA Results Main Effects of Group (F(1,18) = 11.48, p < 0.01) Driving Contexts (F(1,18) = 85.29, p < 0.001) Significant interaction of group x Driving Contexts (F(3,34) = 10.90, p < 0.01) Other results encompassed decomposition of interaction of group x driving contexts Similar baseline RTs for both groups (p=0.299) Longer RTs for both groups with increase of complexity (p < 0.001) Older drivers had greater workload during overtaking maneuvers (p = 0.001). Since, on their part it entailed involvement of more cognitive resources compared to the young drivers. Driving Performance Elderly people took more time compared to the young drivers to complete experimental whose averages encompassed 34.2 Mins vs. 27.4 Mins; F (1, 18) = 40.27, p < 0.001. Exceeding speed for, Young people was 10 times representing 1.85% Elderly people was 3 times representing 0.95% Accidents observed There was only one accident caused by the elderly group throughout the entire performance scenario. The accident was due to lack of looking at the crossing light while approaching the intersection within a distance of 100 m, hence went through the red light resulting to a side crash. Driving on Straight lines Group Average speed (Km/hr) Min speed (Km/hr) Max speed (Km/hr) P Older drivers 59.2 46.5 67.6 Read More