Drivers with Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment Can Benefit from a Multiple‐Session Driving Simulator Automated Training Program

Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairments Show Less Driving Errors after a Multiple Sessions Simulator Training Program but Do Not Exhibit Long Term Retention

“…There was also a general trend for a decreased number of errors for the other variables that were analyzed (tailgating, omitting to indicate a lane change and vehicle control at red-light intersections). These results corroborate our previous observations also made with another group of MCI participants and a group of healthy older drivers (Teasdale et al, 2016). Contrary to a recent observation made by Pavlou et al (2016), also in a simulator study, none of our participants drove with an excessively low speed and none maintained a large distance with the preceding vehicle.…”

“…On the contrary, our participants exceeded the speed limit on several occasions (on average, four errors per driver for the first session with all drivers showing at least one speeding event; all but one driver showed an increased number of speeding events for the recall session) and several drivers also maintained a short time headway (tailgating; 11 out of 15 drivers showed at least one tailgating event on the first session). This was also observed in our previous study (Teasdale et al, 2016). Compared to the study of Pavlou et al (2016), participants that were tested in our studies were at an earlier stage of MCI.…”

“…For instance, Devlin et al (2012) reported an absence of significant differences when comparing the driving performance in a simulator of drivers with MCI to age-matched healthy drivers. In a previous simulator study, we also observed limited differences between MCI and healthy control drivers (Teasdale et al, 2016). The progression of MCI certainly could lead to a decreased performance.…”

“…During the familiarization run (for the first session as well as for all training sessions), general explanations were provided whenever a driver requested specific information regarding the auditory feedback that were provided, and the experimenter made sure that drivers understood the message relevant to each feedback and responded with appropriate corrective responses. The feedback provided were developed based on previous reports of typical errors reported for drivers having cognitive problems (Grace et al, 2005; Dawson et al, 2009; Wadley et al, 2009; Pavlou et al, 2016; Teasdale et al, 2016). They included maneuvers involving executive functions, such as changing lanes (indicating the intent to change lanes and verifying the blind spot) and proper control of the vehicle (speed, variability of the lateral position, and control of the vehicle at intersections).…”

“…In a recent pilot study (Teasdale et al, 2016), we examined if individuals with MCI could benefit from a training program in a driving simulator (five sessions over a 3-week period). None of these individuals participated in the current study.…”