Toward a Driving Competency Assessment Encouraging Elderly\u27s Automobility: A French Point of View

The purpose of this paper is to suggest a methodology for approaching French elderly driver assessments. More precisely, the objective is to evaluate the impact of visual and cognitive declines in older drivers on real road driving performances. A case control study was conducted with 40 senior drivers (aged between 61 to 80 years old) recruited via their insurance company: 20 case volunteers who had caused 3 or more accidents during a three-year period and 20 control volunteers who had caused no accidents during the same period. The experiment consisted of non-driving laboratory tests, including visual and cognitive tests, and a driving assessment in a real traffic situation. Results showed that, compared to the control group, elderly drivers with a history of accidents, have poorer performance on the cognitive tests. Moreover, data from the multiple regression analysis showed that the two measures entering the model were Zazzo time and movement perception (age and group being controlled). Some considerations that shape construction of a driving assessment are discussed. We discuss the fact that such an approach can be used to estimate the driving skills of drivers, not to deliver an aptitude or inaptitude certificate, but to adapt the advice given to drivers

Older drivers' self-regulation: discrepancy reduction or region of proximal learning?

We examined older adults' self-regulation within the region of proximal learning (RPL) framework. Younger and older drivers completed four circuits of increasing difficulty in a driving simulator and were then given a limited amount of time to train for a test. While older drivers chose to train on easier circuits than younger ones, both age groups focused on the easier circuits first, only moving to the more difficult ones later. They were thus equally able to identify their RPL. This framework appears to apply beyond the obvious scope of metamemory and provides a behavioral assessment of self-regulation in driving settings

Effectiveness of two cognitive training programs on the performance of older drivers with a cognitive self-assessment bias

Purpose: Depending on the calibration of their cognitive abilities, some older drivers (ODs) might stop driving prematurely (under-estimators, UEs) and others could expose themselves to risky situations (over-estimators, OEs). The aim of the study was to compare the effectiveness of two cognitive training (CT) programs intended for ODs presenting a cognitive calibration bias. We hypothesized that CT with feedback on performance can help ODs to correctly calibrate their abilities and consequently adapt their driving behavior.Method: One hundred and six ODs (≥70 years) were assigned to two CT groups (with or without a driving simulator experience, DS). These interventions lasted about 36 h and were distributed over a 3-month period. ODs completed objective and subjective cognitive evaluations and an on-road driving evaluation before and after training.Results: The first results on 67 participants (40 from the CT group, and 27 from the CT + DS group) showed an improvement of their visual processing speed, their divided attention and their selective attention after training. Participants from both groups also had an improved TRIP tactical sub-score (Test Ride for Investigating Practical fitness to drive), indicating a better driving behavioral adaptation. Finally, although both training programs seemed to be equally effective in correcting cognitive calibration bias, the results indicated that 21 UEs and 10 OEs were well calibrated and thus correctly self-assessed their cognitive abilities after training.Conclusion: Both CT programs (with or without DS experience) seem to improve the visual attention of ODs. UEs appeared to be more susceptible than OEs to this training and were better calibrated after it. Document type: Articl

Dynamic scan paths investigations under manual and highly automated driving

Active visual scanning of the scene is a key task-element in all forms of human locomotion. In the field of driving, steering (lateral control) and speed adjustments (longitudinal control) models are largely based on drivers’ visual inputs. Despite knowledge gained on gaze behaviour behind the wheel, our understanding of the sequential aspects of the gaze strategies that actively sample that input remains restricted. Here, we apply scan path analysis to investigate sequences of visual scanning in manual and highly automated simulated driving. Five stereotypical visual sequences were identified under manual driving: forward polling (i.e. far road explorations), guidance, backwards polling (i.e. near road explorations), scenery and speed monitoring scan paths. Previously undocumented backwards polling scan paths were the most frequent. Under highly automated driving backwards polling scan paths relative frequency decreased, guidance scan paths relative frequency increased, and automation supervision specific scan paths appeared. The results shed new light on the gaze patterns engaged while driving. Methodological and empirical questions for future studies are discussed.Active visual scanning of the scene is a key task-element in all forms of human locomotion. In the field of driving, steering (lateral control) and speed adjustments (longitudinal control) models are largely based on drivers’ visual inputs. Despite knowledge gained on gaze behaviour behind the wheel, our understanding of the sequential aspects of the gaze strategies that actively sample that input remains restricted. Here, we apply scan path analysis to investigate sequences of visual scanning in manual and highly automated simulated driving. Five stereotypical visual sequences were identified under manual driving: forward polling (i.e. far road explorations), guidance, backwards polling (i.e. near road explorations), scenery and speed monitoring scan paths. Previously undocumented backwards polling scan paths were the most frequent. Under highly automated driving backwards polling scan paths relative frequency decreased, guidance scan paths relative frequency increased, and automation supervision specific scan paths appeared. The results shed new light on the gaze patterns engaged while driving. Methodological and empirical questions for future studies are discussed.Peer reviewe

Determination of cognitive workload variation in driving from ECG derived respiratory signal and heart rate

2nd International Neuroergonomics Conference, PHILADELPHIE, ETATS-UNIS, 27-/06/2018 - 29/06/2018Research works on operator monitoring underline the benefit of taking into consideration several signal modalities to improve accuracy for an objective mental state diagnosis. Heart rate (HR) is one of the most utilized systemic measures to assess cognitive workload (CW), whereas respiration parameters are hardly utilized. This study aims at verifying the contribution of analyzing respiratory signals to extract features to evaluate driver's activity and CW variations in driving with regard to cardiac activity. Eighteen subjects participated in the study. The participants carried out two different cognitive tasks requiring different CW demands, a single task as well as a competing cognitive task realized while driving in a simulator. Our results confirm that both HR and breathing rate (BR) increase in driving and are sensitive to CW. However, HR and BR are differently modulated by the CW variations in driving. Specifically, BR is suitable to evidence a variation of CW when driving is not required. On the other hand, spectral features characterizing respiratory signal could be also used similarly to HR variability indices to detect high CW episodes. These results hint the use of respiration to monitor the driver mental state in autonomic vehicles in order to predict the available cognitive resources if the user has to take over the vehicle

Respiration and Heart Rate Modulation Due to Competing Cognitive Tasks While Driving

Research works on operator monitoring underline the benefit of taking into consideration several signal modalities to improve accuracy for an objective mental state diagnosis. Heart rate (HR) is one of the most utilized systemic measures to assess cognitive workload (CW), whereas, respiration parameters are hardly utilized. This study aims at verifying the contribution of analyzing respiratory signals to extract features to evaluate driver’s activity and CW variations in driving. Eighteen subjects participated in the study. The participants carried out two different cognitive tasks requiring different CW demands, a single task as well as a competing cognitive task realized while driving in a simulator. Our results confirm that both HR and breathing rate (BR) increase in driving and are sensitive to CW. However, HR and BR are differently modulated by the CW variations in driving. Specifically, HR is affected by both driving activity and CW, whereas, BR is suitable to evidence a variation of CW only when driving is not required. On the other hand, spectral features characterizing respiratory signal could be also used similarly to HR variability indices to detect high CW episodes. These results hint the use of respiration as an alternative to HR to monitor the driver mental state in autonomic vehicles in order to predict the available cognitive resources if the user has to take over the vehicle

Mind wandering and driving: a responsibility case-control study

Objective To assess the association between mind wandering (i.e. thinking unrelated to the task at hand) and the risk of being responsible for the crash. Design Responsibility case-control study. Setting Adult emergency department of the Bordeaux University hospital (France) from April 2010 to August 2011. Participants 955 injured drivers presenting as a result of motor vehicle crash. Main outcome measures The main outcome variable was responsibility for the crash. Exposures were mind wandering, external distraction, negative affect, alcohol use, psychotropic medicine use, and sleep deprivation. Potential confounders were sociodemographic and crash characteristics. Results Beyond classical risk factors found to be associated with responsibility, the results showed that intense mind wandering was associated with being responsible for a crash (17% [responsible] vs. 9% [not responsible]; adjusted OR [95% CI]=2.12 [1.37-3.28]). Conclusions Mind wandering while driving, by decoupling attention from visual and auditory perceptions, may jeopardize the ability of the driver to incorporate information from the environment, thereby threatening safety on the roads. Our findings provide support for the latest research designed to develop systems to detect periods of driving vulnerability related to inattention. In addition, further research is recommended to assess how these results could lead to innovative interventions such as attentional training for drivers at risk of inattention

Les évolutions récentes relatives aux examens psychotechniques

Colloque «Santé et sécurité routière», PARIS, FRANCE, 16-/09/2016 - 16/09/2016A la demande de la DSCR, L'Ifsttar a pris part aux travaux menés dans le cadre de l'évolution des examens psychotechnique du permis de conduire. Dans le cadre du colloque « Santé et Sécurité Routière » organisé conjointement par la DGS et la DSCR, une synthèse des travaux menés par le groupe a été présentée

Évaluation de la performance de conduite et mise en évidence d'adaptation comportementale auprès des conducteurs âgés. In : Aptitudes visuelles : l'oeil sain, l'oeil opéré, l'oeil pathologique. Zanlonghi, X. and Quinton-Fantoni, S.

La question de l'évaluation de l'aptitude ou de l'inaptitude à la conduite est une question difficile car l'activité de conduite automobile est une activité complexe au cours de laquelle différentes régulations comportementales peuvent opérer et il est difficile d'évaluer, avec des outils suffisamment sensibles et spécifiques, l'adéquation entre l'état de santé du conducteur et l'activité de conduite qu'il mène. Comme le souligne de nombreux auteurs, aucun test visuel simple ni aucune combinaison de tests visuels n'ont permis d'identifier des individus en sur-risque d'accident sans entrainer également la disqualification d'un nombre important de conducteurs potentiellement sûres. Cet article souligne les défis de l'évaluation de l'aptitude à la conduite

Enquêtes, observations et analyse de l'activité auprès de conducteurs âgés : comprendre les obstacles pour mieux agir (parcours critique, positions théoriques et perspectives de recherche)

To preserve the independence and quality of life of our seniors, it is essential to reconcile the requirements of security issues with mobility ones. Public action in road safety can be renewed by being sensitized to the issue of security management, i.e. by searching underlying rationalities from the observed behaviors. This requires studying the security in action from senior drivers' activity analysis. Most of the older drivers use their capabilities in order to build an appropriate response to the driving conditions encountered. These coping skills enable them to remain fit to drive. Starting from practice, this approach allows to redefine the "good driving" rules and thus shed new light on the driving assessment issue. In French, the translation of the word 'driving' is a polysemic term. In this 'habilitation to conduct research' dissertation, it will is used in its generic sense. It includes an objectified part (behavior) and a non-objectified part: the reason, the motive, the act(s) of thought that come before, during or after a performance. The research works I have conducted tried to elucidate the roles of cognitive, affective and conative processes to capture the processes' intermediate parts (or links) involved in the adopted behaviors; we based our investigations on the study of intra and inter-subjective processes. This approach allows us to objectivize the origins and sometimes the causes of behaviors. However, to better understand them, an observation approach must be associated. Indeed, through observation, the objective reasons to act are figured-out by building a posteriori arguments based on observed behavior and statements from the individuals. These two approaches are complementary, they allow to explain and to understand behaviors in order, ultimately, to better act. A central concept in the study of adaptation to normal cognitive aging is the cognitive control (ability to respond to stimuli based on the present context, past indices and internal aims). The study of cognitive control during driving allows the description of different forms of adaptation exploring their dimensions, their mechanisms and their determinants. To understand seniors' behaviors, it is also necessary to take into account their situation, their needs, their physical and social environments to better describe their difficulties and the risks they are exposed to. The complementarity of different tools and methods used to tackle this issue is addressed. The research conducted to date help to clarify aims to be reached in order to increase senior safety, to identify priority actions and also to help public authorities to take rational decisions that maximize both the mobility and safety of older drivers. Through examples, we described the adaptive strategies adopted by some older drivers to safe act against disturbances that appear while aging and we also describe how we can identify older drivers who do not adapt optimally. As attention capacities are essential to preserve a safe driving, an expand section on attentional failure while driving is also presented. Within the two research lines, whose main results are detailed below, it is shown that the concept of estimation bias is central to the implementation of driver' behavioral self-regulation. 1. Older drivers' self-regulatory behaviors were explored regarding declared aberrant driving behaviors and perceived abilities . The study suggests that perceived abilities, especially self-assessed driving related processing speed and attentional abilities, play a major role in the decision to self-regulate its own behaviors (avoiding difficult driving situations) and that such self-efficacy beliefs are a stronger predictors of avoidance than driver behavior questionnaire. The avoidance of difficult driving situations as a behavioral self-regulation option were also compared between young and older drivers : the older drivers reported greater avoidance situations than the younger drivers, more significant correlations were observed between self-reported driving avoidance and both health-related perceptions and objective indicators of cognitive function among them. To explore if older adults spontaneously draw on their monitoring skills to accurately self-regulate their behaviors, we explored drivers' self-regulation within discrepancy reduction framework and the region of proximal learning : we have shown that younger and older drivers were thus equally able to identify their region of proximal learning. In a complementary study, we have also shown that exposing older drivers to a stereotype threat severely impairs their self-regulatory skills; this is at least partly due to exhaustion of the executive resources appearing through working memory overload . These research works were the starting point for a wider reflection on the implementation of more effective training interventions, especially for older drivers that present a cognitive self-assessment bias . These interventions will allow to support behavior change in order to improve the comfort and safety of older drivers. 2. Due to substantial gains in road safety due to speed reduction, safety-belt wear, and the diminution of driving under alcohol influence, the proportion of accidents due to attention failure while driving increases. In a four years project funded by the French research agency (ANR), we worked in a multidisciplinary team (cognitive and mathematical sciences and epidemiology) to clarify the road safety issues and identify avenues for innovative actions to better supervise the driver. A first step was to identify the risk fractions attributable to different types of attention failure in order to better prevent them. A survey was conducted in Bordeaux hospitals. 955 drivers injured in a road accident were interviewed following their admission to the emergency rooms. They were asked to report their activity and the content and intensity of their thoughts in the moments before the accident. Of the 453 drivers related to mind wandering (MW), the contents proved intense or disturbing for 121. These thoughts were significantly more frequent among drivers responsible for the accident. It thus appears that an accident on ten is linked with a driver intrusive thought (Galéra et al., 2012) . Distractions related to events outside the vehicle and driver activity are also associated with responsibility (OR 3.3 and 9.6 respectively). Attributable share of casualties related to external distraction is estimated at 9 % (Bakiri et al., 2013) . These epidemiological findings show that attention failure during driving is a road safety deposit that may reduce the number of casualties on our roads. In a second step, we also tried to understand the influence of various failure of attention on driver behavior. First, three forms of cognitive interference were studied to describe their effects on simulated driving behavior and the treatment of information (studied with the evoked potentials technic). Visuospatial cognitive distractions impacted anticipation (by observing the contingent negative variation, CNV), while verbal distractions impacted the information processing at sensory and cognitive processing steps. The experimental results showed the differential influences of various types of cognitive control (attentional control, emotional control and behavioral inhibition). Experiments conducted on a simulator and on the road showed that: retrospective and prospective thoughts change ocular strategies (eye gaze and increased pupillary diameter; Lemercier et al., 2014) , the increased cognitive effort results in increased heart rate associated with a decrease of its variability and different regulation strategies have been described for the control of cognitive effort while driving (Gabaude et al., 2012) . A complementary study have then shown that the real-time detection of cognitive effort is feasible . A survey through the use of an off-line questionnaire was also conducted to reveal the individual and contextual characteristics of driving in a MW state, to describe behavioral consequences of MW on driving and to determine the characteristics of off-task thoughts while driving (Berthié et al., 2015) . In this research project, the influences of MW on the accident risk and on the driving behavior have been demonstrated, it provides avenues of research and an insight into new original development. The complementarity of the two types of methods to analyze the impact of cognitive distraction on driving activity by exploratory and confirmatory analysis was discussed. Geometry information methods have been used to analyze data applied from the vehicle side to enable the thresholds identification beyond which it is probable that the driver performs driving competing activity (Letelier, 2012) . These criteria are not always sensitive because of the variability of observed behaviors. The psycho-ergonomic analysis of the drivers' activities could help to better describe the various regulation strategies that can be adopted. This approach is required to identify, from the data side, the most sensitive and specific algorithms. This will be the first step towards the development of a driver supervision system, thus contributing to the objectives of reducing road accidents. By comparing different disciplinary perspectives, this project has allowed substantial progress on the subject of attention failure while driving. We began to understand the causes and origins of various attention failure and their consequences on driving. The exploratory analysis of sequential data and supervised learning techniques (data-mining) applied to the data collected on highway are used to search algorithms able to identify a distracted driver. New technological challenges, consisting in the adaptation of driving assistance depending on the driver state, will soon be addressed. The work presented in this dissertation also stress the need to broach health issues in their complexity and not to address the driving ability issue in regard of a unique road safety policy. To take advantage of successful aging, the elderly must evolve with their environment and adapt consequently. The increase of knowledge on this adaptation notion is essential. The knowledge gained on the adaptation to cognitive aging must now be exploited to develop interventions to accompany the older drivers in various stages of adoption of precautionary behavior. In the perspective section outlined in this dissertation, we develop four directions to implement research actions in order to: accompany the public authorities on issues related to the safe mobility of seniors, better prevent negative effects of aging, offer to older users the digital revolution opportunities taking place in the health and transportation domains and lastly to promote a continuum of mobility for our seniors. In future research, it will also be necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of the different actions or interventions proposed, some first ideas in this direction are suggested.Afin de préserver l'autonomie et la qualité de vie de nos aînés, il est indispensable de concilier des exigences de sécurité et de mobilité. L'action publique en sécurité routière peut être renouvelée en étant sensibilisée à la question de la sécurité gérée, c'est à dire en procédant à une logique de recherche des rationalités sous-jacentes aux comportements obserÎs. Ceci nécessite d'étudier la sécurité en action à partir de l'analyse de l'activité de conduite de nos ainés. La plupart des conducteurs âgés utilisent leurs capacités dans le but de bâtir une réponse adaptée aux situations de conduite rencontrées. Ces capacités d'adaptation leur permettent de rester aptes à conduire. Une telle démarche permet de partir des pratiques pour redéfinir les règles de « bonne conduite » et ainsi apporter un éclairage nouveau sur la question du bilan d'aptitude à la conduite. La conduite, terme polysémique pris ici dans son sens générique, contient : une partie objectivable (le comportement) et une partie non objectivable : le motif, le mobile, l(es) acte(s) de pensée qui accompagnent précèdent ou suivent un comportement. Les travaux que j'ai menés tentent d'élucider les processus cognitifs, affectifs et conatifs pour saisir les chainons intermédiaires des processus en cause dans nos conduites ; nous fondons nos investigations sur des processus intra et intersubjectifs. Cette démarche nous permet d'objectiver les causes d'un comportement. Cependant, afin de mieux les comprendre, elle doit être accompagnée par une démarche d'observation : en effet, par l'observation, on objective les raisons d'agir en construisant a postériori une argumentation à partir des comportements obserÎs et des déclarations faites par les individus. Les deux approches sont complémentaires, elles permettent d'expliquer et de comprendre afin, au final, de pouvoir mieux agir. Une notion centrale dans l'étude de l'adaptation au vieillissement cognitif normal est celle de contrôle cognitif. L'étude du contrôle cognitif en conduite automobile permet de décrire différentes modalités de l'adaptation. Afin de comprendre les comportements de nos aînés, il est aussi nécessaire de prendre en compte leurs situations, leurs besoins, leurs environnements physique et social afin de mieux décrire les difficultés rencontrées et les risques encourus. La complémentarité de différents outils et méthodes utilisés pour aborder cette problématique est ainsi abordée. Les recherches menées à ce jour contribuent à préciser les objectifs à atteindre, à définir les actions prioritaires et à prendre des décisions rationnelles qui maximisent à la fois la mobilité et la sécurité des conducteurs âgés. Au travers d'exemples, nous verrons comment certains conducteurs âgés agissent en sécurité face aux perturbations apparaissant avec le vieillissement et comment nous pouvons identifier ceux qui ne s'adaptent pas de façon optimale. Nous verrons que la notion de biais d'estimation est centrale dans la mise en oeuvre d'autorégulations comportementales. Ces recherches ont permis de mettre en oeuvre des programmes d'entrainement destinés aux conducteurs âgés présentant un biais d'évaluation cognitive. Les premiers résultats indiquent que l'intervention semble efficace pour améliorer la calibration cognitive des participants, cette piste est novatrice. Elle permet d'accompagner les changements de comportements et ainsi améliorer le confort et la sécurité des conducteurs âgés. Les travaux présentés soulignent aussi la nécessité de penser les questions de santé dans leur complexité et de ne plus aborder cette question de l'aptitude à la conduite sous l'angle d'une unique politique de sécurité routière. Pour bénéficier d'un vieillissement réussi, la personne âgée doit évoluer avec son milieu et s'adapter, la progression des connaissances sur cette notion d'adaptation est donc essentielle. Les connaissances acquises sur l'adaptation au vieillissement cognitif doivent maintenant être mises à profit afin de mettre en place des interventions destinées à accompagner les personnes âgées dans les différents stades d'adoption de comportement de précaution. Dans les perspectives tracées dans ce travail d'HDR, nous proposons de développer différentes actions afin de promouvoir un continuum de mobilité pour nos aînés. Il sera nécessaire de prévoir d'évaluer l'efficacité des différentes interventions proposées, des premières propositions sont formulées