Transcript Age, cognitive style, and traffic signs

Age, cognitive style, and
traffic signs
Professor: Liu
Student: 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.
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when it was presented directly in its
environment than 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 fielddependence/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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Stimuli
 There had eight signs presented to subjects.
 The signs were effectively used were two
existing signs.
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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 fielddependent 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
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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
modification 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.
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