Abstract

Previous research has shown age-related declines in the use of specifying perceptual information to guide action decisions in traffic environments. In the present study, we investigated the effects of cross-modal cueing on perceptual training with older adults in a virtual road-crossing task. Specifically, we tested whether the visual information used to decide which inter-car gaps afforded crossing could be influenced by sound events which tracked either gap-specifying or non-specifying optic variables. Thirty-nine older adults were divided into three groups who practiced with auditory cues mapped to either the time-to-arrival of the approaching car (specifying group), its distance (non-specifying group), or no sounds (control group). Although all three groups reduced decision errors with training, analysis of which variables predicted crossing responses showed that the specifying group’s decisions became more attuned to the time-to-arrival information, whereas the non-specifying group became less attuned to this information and more to the distance information. Thus, attention for action decisions in older adults was re-educated towards either specifying or non-specifying visual information, depending on the optic variables highlighted by the auditory cues. The implications of these findings are discussed in the context of designing perceptual learning studies and road safety interventions for the elderly.

摘要

先前的研究表明，在交通环境中，使用指定的感知信息来指导动作决策的使用与年龄有关。在本研究中，我们调查了跨模式提示对虚拟跨路任务中老年人的知觉训练的影响。具体来说，我们测试了用于确定哪个汽车之间的间隙提供交叉的视觉信息是否会受到跟踪间隙指定或非指定光学变量的声音事件的影响。三十九名成年人分为听觉线索练习的三组，听觉线索映射到接近汽车的到达时间（指定组），距离（未指定组）或无声音（对照组）。尽管这三个小组均通过培训减少了决策错误，对哪些变量预测了交叉响应的分析表明，指定小组的决策与到达时间信息更加协调，而非指定小组对此信息的协调程度较小，而对距离信息的协调程度更高。因此，根据听觉提示突出显示的视觉变量，对老年人行动决策的关注重新针对特定的或非特定的视觉信息。在设计感知学习研究和针对老年人的道路安全干预措施的背景下，讨论了这些发现的含义。根据听觉提示突出显示的视力变量，对老年人行动决策的关注重新针对特定的或非特定的视觉信息。在设计感知学习研究和针对老年人的道路安全干预措施的背景下，讨论了这些发现的含义。根据听觉提示突出显示的视力变量，对老年人行动决策的关注重新针对特定的或非特定的视觉信息。在设计感知学习研究和针对老年人的道路安全干预措施的背景下，讨论了这些发现的含义。