Good Old Gamers, Good Drivers: Results from a correlational experiment among older drivers

Abstract

In many situations, driving is essential for senior citizens to maintain their independent lifestyle. A systematic literature review was conducted that summarized the age-related physical, visual and cognitive functional declines and their associated risk to driving. Based on these findings, we explored whether the skills required in playing Xbox Kinect video games were correlated with measures of driving performance among older drivers. Fifty-two participants, 65 years of age or older (Mean = 72; SD = 3.84; range 65 -85 years; 29 males) who have access to a car and drive frequently were invited to play Just dance, Table Tennis (ping pong), Bowling, and Dr Kawashima's Brain Training Exercises on an Xbox Kinect 360. Participants also completed a 25-minute on-road driving task along a predetermined route to assess and identify critical driving errors using a similar instrument as that used by a driving license examiner. Bivariate correlation examined the relationship between game scores and these objective driving skills. There was a significant correlation between the Xbox Kinect video games and on-road driving scores (r = 0.861, p < 0.001), indicating that 'good gamers are good drivers'. This correlation was significant for the males (r = 0.864, p < 0.001) as well as for the females (r = 0.878, p < 0.001). We suggest that performance on Xbox games may be a suitable, cost-effective and less-risky indicator of on-road driving skills for older drivers, particularly in jurisdictions in which mandatory testing of older citizens has been introduced or is being considered as a requirement in the driver licensing process.

The impact of telehealth technology on user perception of wellbeing and social functioning, and the implications for service providers

“…A number of participants who expressed some initial scepticism about the telehealth equipment, were very accepting of the equipment by the follow-up interview. This is in line with other studies that have introduced information systems to older people (Burmeister, 2010(Burmeister, , 2012Kurniawan, 2008;Morris et al, 2014;Vichitvanichphong, Talaei-Khoei, Kerr, Ghapanchi, & Scott-Parker, 2016). There seemed to be relatively few technical problems with reliability, but some follow-up reminders to measure and report according to the agreed schedule had occurred.…”

A Post Publication Review of "Good Old Gamers, Good Drivers: Results from a correlational experiment among older drivers"

“…The recently published paper by Vichitvanichphong, Talaei-Khoei, Kerr, Ghapanchi, and Scott-Parker (2016), is interesting because their findings are contrary to previous research which reported that playing video games skills did not transfer to driving. Their review of the literature showed that functional declines related to driving ability in many cases result in accidents that could be avoided if particular video games were used to test the abilities of elderly drivers.…”

How younger elderly realize usefulness of cognitive training video games to maintain their independent living

“…(Ballesteros et al, 2014;Basak et al, 2008;Charness, 2015;Maillot et al, 2012;McDougall and House, 2012;Zelinski and Reyes, 2009)  The effect of video game trainings on the cognitive ability of elderly persons can be transferred to the capabilities required for the daily life activities of elderly, making their independent life possible. (Maillot et al, 2012;Damian Sue et al, 2014;Vichitvanichphong et al, 2016) Perceived Transfer Effect When an individual perceives the usefulness of an intervention through understanding its transfer effect that allows her/him to remain capable of living independently in a standard of living that she/he values.…”

“…There is a large body of literature that supports video games by showing the positive impacts on elderly's cognitive ability tests; tests such as Wisconsin Card Sorting (Ballesteros et al, 2014), Stroop task (Zelinski and Reyes, 2009), Operation Span (Basak et al, 2008) and Letter-Number Sequence (Charness, 2015), Digit Span (McDougall and House, 2012), and Simple Reaction Time (Maillot et al, 2012). It was also shown that the effect of video game trainings on the cognitive abilities of the elderly can be transferred to the capabilities required for daily activities that make their independent life possible (Maillot et al, 2012;Damian Sue et al, 2014;Vichitvanichphong et al, 2016).…”

“…Video games have shown positive impacts on elderly cognitive abilities (Ballesteros et al, 2014;Basak et al, 2008;Charness, 2015;Maillot et al, 2012;McDougall and House, 2012;Zelinski and Reyes, 2009). This is demonstrated through literature that focuses on how untrained capabilities required for independent livingsuch as driving (Damian Sue et al, 2014;Vichitvanichphong et al, 2016), reading and writing (Maillot et al, 2012) -are improved by playing cognitive training video games. This is designated as a Transfer Effect (Mayas et al, 2014): an effect in which the impact of an intervention (e.g.…”