| dc.contributor.author | Elliott, Dustin Michael | |
| dc.description.abstract | Aging negatively impacts multiple processes of visual attention that can influence driving performance and safety. However, spatial orienting in response to visual cues remains relatively intact into late adulthood. The two experiments in the present study were aimed to determine the extent to which two types of directional visual cues effectively guide spatial orienting of older (60-80 years) and younger (18-35 years) adults in driving scenes. In Experiment 1, I utilized a Posner cuing task to investigate reflexive orienting to a target (a car at an intersection) in response to peripheral onset and central arrow cues. Both younger and older adults showed orienting benefits to valid directional cues and costs to invalid directional cues, and older adults showed greater attentional costs and benefits than younger adults. Furthermore, only younger adults showed general alerting effects following non-directional cues. In Experiment 2, I tested whether peripheral onset cues could effectively orient younger and older adults’ attention to a car’s location in video clips of simulated driving. Both age groups showed attentional benefits and costs from directional cues as well as alerting effects from neutral cues. Older adults showed larger overall cuing effects, which were driven primarily by costs from invalid cues. The age differences in the magnitude of cuing effects persisted, for the most part, after reducing the influence of general slowing. The two experiments of the present study demonstrated the effectiveness of visual cues in guiding attention in driving scenes. The findings suggest that the visual attention of both younger and older adults can be facilitated by visual cues in a driving environment, and the findings serve as a stepping-stone to the applied integration of cues into automobiles. | en_US |
| dc.publisher | North Dakota State University | en_US |
| dc.rights | NDSU Policy 190.6.2 | |
| dc.title | Facilitating Attentional Guidance in Driving Scenes: Adult Age Differences in the Effectiveness of Directional Cues | en_US |
| dc.type | Dissertation | en_US |
| dc.type | Video | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2018-02-06T19:51:07Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2018-02-06T19:51:07Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2018 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10365/27455 | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | Department of Psychology, NDSU | en_US |
| dc.rights.uri | https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf | |
| ndsu.degree | Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) | en_US |
| ndsu.college | Science and Mathematics | en_US |
| ndsu.department | Psychology | en_US |
| ndsu.program | Visual and Cognitive Neuroscience | en_US |
| ndsu.advisor | Langley, Linda K. | |
