Aging and detection of collision events on curved trajectories

Abstract

In the current study we examined age-related differences in the detection of collision events on a curved trajectory. Observers were presented with displays simulating an approaching object moving at a constant speed that was either on a collision or a non-collision path. The object disappeared before reaching the observer, and the task was to determine whether the object was on a collision path. In a series of three experiments, we manipulated the motion trajectory of the object (linear or curved), time-to-contact (TTC), and radius of the curvature. We found decreased performance with older as compared to younger observers when the object was traveling on a linear trajectory at long TTC. However, there was no age-related decrement in detecting a collision when the object was traveling on a curved trajectory. These results indicate a similar ability for older and younger observers in detecting collisions on a curved trajectory.

Motion perception as a model for perceptual aging

“…Older adults have been shown to be less sensitive to changes in vehicle velocities (Scialfa, Guzy, Leibowitz, Garvey, & Tyrrell, 1991) and to have difficulties judging vehicle trajectories (DeLucia & Mather, 2006). In addition, they often fail to identify moving hazards in driving scenes (Lacherez, Turner, Lester, Burns, & Wood, 2014) and miss upcoming collision events (Andersen, Cisneros, Saidpour, & Atchley, 2000;Andersen & Enriquez, 2006;Bian, Guindon, & Andersen, 2013). There is correlational evidence that reduced motion sensitivity might contribute to these difficulties (Conlon et al, 2015;Conlon & Herkes, 2008;Wilkins et al, 2013).…”