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Age, cognitive style, and traffic signs

Professor: LiuStudent: Ruby

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objective

•This study discuss the young and older adults of field dependence on traffic signs.

•To assess to what extent changes in traffic signs could render them more easily recognizable by car drivers.

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References

•Drivers they observed in a real driving situation more frequently did not obey a “ Do not enter” sign. when it was presented directly in its environment tha

n when it was isolated by a square surface of 1 m on each side.

Hoskovec, Stikar, and Raouf, 1974

•Elderly drivers have more accidents by kilometer driven than the population and also more often legally responsible for these accidents.

Waller, 1988; Rothengatter & Brouwer, 1991

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References

•People differ in perceiving the world and these differences have many times been related to the concept of field-dependence/independence.

Witkin, Dyk, Faterson, Goodenough, & Karp, 1962

•Field dependent subjects are less efficient than field-independent ones in detecting indices relevant to the driving task.

Goodenough, 1976; Mihal & Barret, 1976

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Exp 1 - Methods

•Assessment of effects of age and cognitive style on a recognition task Subjects:

Younger group (16 people, 8 women & 8 men)age from 19-40 years old, M=26

Older group (7 women & 11 men)age from 56-82 years old, M=67

Using Group Embedded Figures Test to find the field dependence/independence.

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Methods Stimuli

20 traffic signs. 4 were used the references and not appear in

the analysis. Each of the 16 signs was presented against

each of three backgrounds and at each of two positions.

Each condition presented three times. The signs were in a rural and urban scene.

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Methods Procedure

Two traffic signs were presented on a black screen for 2 sec, then blank for 500 mses, and then the target sign appeared.

Then subject response which position the target get in.

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Result and Discussion

• Personality variables Field dependent as well as the older subjects had longer

recognition times than field independent (younger). The interaction between was significant (P<.01), the older

subjects are more from higher scores on the GEFT than the younger’s.

• Traffic signs RT as a function of the category to which a sign belonged

(p<.05). The background on which a sign appeared affected time

to recognize (p<.05). The position at which the sign appeared had a significant

effect on RT (p<.05).

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Result and Discussion

•The influence of the backgrounds only showed up in the Prescription and Indication categories.

•The effect of the position in which a sign appeared was significant only in the Construction category.

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Result and Discussion

•The personality explain more than 53% of the observed variance of the results whereas the factors associated with the environment explain only 14%.the urban of the personality in the efficacy of extracting information from the environment.

•The subjects are facing a sign which presents a low spatial frequency, but not in the high spatial frequency.

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Exp 2 - Methods

• Assessment of modifications of pictographs of traffic signs to make them more conspicuous and faster to recognize

Subjects Younger group (12 people, age of 26 years) Older group (12 people, age of 62 years)

Using the Group Embedded Figures Test to know the cognition style.

Two conditions in this study One being the detection or localization of a traffic sign

embedded in its context. The other being the recognition or identification of a

traffic sign.

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Methods Stimuli

There had eight signs presented to subjects. The signs were effectively used were two

existing signs. One announcing the beginning of a gravel road. The other the beginning of grooved pavement.

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Methods Procedure

For the identification part, present a traffic sign on a black background for 2 sec, which was the target.

For the localization part, the traffic signs appeared on one of three graphic backgrounds.

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Results

•The personality factors showed that the older people were slower to respond and they were more field-dependent than younger.

•The modifications of the pictographs affected the time to identify the signs (P<.05).

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Results

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Results

•Detection The time taken to localize the signs was

influenced by the personality measures of the subjects.

More field independent people, the RT was faster.

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Discussion

•In many situations the RTs were essentially independent of the number of non-targets.

•For detection, the subjects only had a coarse localization to perform and this could well be done with effortless processing.

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Discussion

•The field-dependent scorers were still slower than the field-independent scorers at the localization of the target.

•To the identification part of the study, the modifications had a reduction in time taken for recognition of more than 90 msec.present a modification of a sign with the equal modif

ication of the other one thus rendering the task more difficult.

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Discussion

•Older field dependent drivers were slower RT, and the young field independent were the faster.greater attention should be paid to the modification

of some traffic signs, especially for the older drivers.