The roles of working memory capacity, visual attention and age in driving performance
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Summary
HFES proceedings paper examining how age, working memory capacity (Operation Span/OSPAN), and visual attention (Useful Field of View, UFOV) relate to simulated driving performance. Thirty-five participants (15 community-dwelling older adults aged 61-80; 20 university students aged 18-30) completed OSPAN, UFOV, and a driving-simulator task, with their cognitive scores correlated against driving measures. Preliminary results indicated that the attentional measures are important predictors of driving performance, supporting use of cognitive-control assessments in policy discussions about older-driver safety.
Key finding
Working memory capacity and useful field of view were important predictors of simulated driving performance across young adults and community-dwelling older adults.
Methodology
Cross-sectional individual-differences correlational study with simulator drive
Sample size: N=35 (15 older adults aged 61-80; 20 young adults aged 18-30)
Quality score: 5 / 5