Institut Français des Sciences et Technologies des Transports, de l'Aménagement et des Réseaux

Type de document

COMMUNICATION AVEC ACTES INTERNATIONAL (ACTI)

Langue

anglais

Auteur

GABAUDE ; PAIRE-FICOUT ; LAFONT ; BEDOIN ; KNOBLAUCH ; BRUYAS ; VITAL-DURAND

Résumé / Abstract

Older drivers are overrepresented in fatal accidents especially at intersections (Preuser et al. 1998). Concerning perceptivo-cognitive processes, they are more affected in detecting change in dynamic environment, less accurate in decision making and more affected by a dual task. Nevertheless it is not clear how these disturbances are expressed during complex targeted activities as the driving activity. The more original hypothesis explored in this study is that older drivers are more prone to make a correct decision even if the change has not been seen (implicit correct decision). In order to understand how a distractive task could disrupt change detection at intersection and its impact on decision making, two joint experiments are conducted using flicker technique to induce change blindness. Experiment 1 is a time unlimited detection task and experiment 2 is a time limited decision task (deciding to turn left or not). Ninety six photographs of left-turn intersections are manipulated so that one object (pedestrian, vehicle, road sign) in the scene can change when flickering. The study was conducted with 20 young adults (30±3 years old, min=24, max=35) and 60 older drivers (71±4 years old, min=65, max=81). Results show that older group is slower to detect the change and that the dual task only affect the older group. Older group is less accurate in decision making than younger one but the dual task impacts both groups. Regarding the combined analysis of the two experiments, older drivers take more often implicit correct decisions than younger ones and this effect seems to be increased by the dual task. Results will be discussed regarding the effect of cognitive load on the deepness of perceptivo-cognitive treatment.