Inattentional Blindness During Driving in Younger and Older Adults

Age-related changes to perceptual and cognitive abilities have been implicated in an increased risk of collision in older adults. This may be due, in part, to their reduced ability to attend to potentially relevant aspects of their driving environment. An associated general phenomenon of inattentional blindness involves a failure to notice visually presented objects or events when attention is directed elsewhere. Previous studies of inattentional blindness using computer paradigms report higher incidence of this effect in older compared to younger adults. However, little is known about whether these age-related effects are observed during more complex, realistic, everyday tasks, such as driving. Therefore, the goal of this study was to explore whether younger and older adults differ in their awareness of objects in their driving environment when their attention is directed toward another primary driving task. This study took place in a high-fidelity, full field of view, driving simulator. Thirty-two younger (Mage = 25.41) and 32 older (Mage = 73.41) adults drove through 19 short scenarios and were asked to first judge whether their vehicle could fit between two rows of vehicles parked on either side of the road and then to perform the associated driving maneuver (i.e., drive through or drive around). On four critical trials, objects were placed on the side of the road that differed in terms of animacy. Specifically, animate objects consisted of 3D humans standing by a bus shelter and inanimate objects consisted of photographs of the same individuals on a bus shelter advertisement. Inattentional blindness was measured via a post-drive, tablet-based recognition task immediately following the critical trials. Results revealed high rates of inattentional blindness across both age groups, with significantly lower levels of awareness for inanimate objects compared to animate objects. Further, whereas younger adults demonstrated reduced inattentional blindness following the first critical trial, older adults did not show this immediate improvement in recognition performance. Overall, this study provides unique insights into the factors associated with age-related changes to attention and how they may affect important driving-related outcomes

Photograph or Clipart: Does Object Depiction Affect the Mapping of Language to Referents?

Psycholinguistic studies using the "visual world" paradigm tend to employ either photographs or clipart as stimuli, with convenience or availability typically serving as the sole reason for choosing a particular image type. The present study examined how image type (clipart/photograph) affects the process of mapping language to visual referents. On each trial, participants viewed an array of objects and heard a recorded sentence containing either a semantically neutral verb (Experiment 1: Jamie will move the banana) or a semantically restrictive verb (Experiment 2: Jamie will peel the banana). Image type (clipart/photograph) was manipulated across blocks. Eye movements were recorded as participants listened to the sentences and mouse-clicked on the last-mentioned object. Quite strikingly, image type did not appear to affect language-driven eye movements. However, it did sometimes influence the initial moments of visual processing, before the recorded sentence began. The results are described in terms of their implications for visual-world studies of language processing.M.A

Aging and Referential Communication: Insights from Interactions with Artificial Agents

The global aging population has led to an increase in research on patterns of change across the lifespan. The evidence to-date suggests that older adults experience declines in sensory and cognitive abilities, however, less is known about changes in the language domain. Language is a fundamental component of everyday communication, not only in the context of interactions with humans but also with artificial agents. There are now increasing multidisciplinary efforts to develop technologies that provide assistance and/or companionship to older adults through spoken language interfaces (e.g., smart homes, social robots). Yet, there is little research on how effectively older adults communicate with artificial agents. Given that a key aspect of everyday communication with humans and artificial agents involves reference to objects in the here-and-now, this dissertation explores age-related differences in referential abilities. The goal is to advance our understanding of patterns of change in referential communication by drawing on insights from interactions with artificial agents. The first study, which explored how speakers design descriptions for different addressees (younger adult, older adult, computer), revealed that although older speakers produced more redundant information than younger speakers, they were similar in terms of performance measures (speech onset latency, speech rate, fluency). Intriguingly, effects were similar regardless of addressee type. The next study examined potential age-related differences in pragmatic inferencing during comprehension. Like younger adults, older listeners generated inferences based on relevant visual information, but had more difficulty suppressing these inferences when warranted (i.e., when a robot speaker had limited perceptual abilities). The final study, which explored the effect of redundant information in descriptions produced by a robot, revealed no age-related differences in real-time processing. Paralleling human-human studies, redundant information that helped to narrow listeners' visual attention facilitated comprehension. Together, the results show that patterns of referential communication with artificial agents are quite similar to previously-observed patterns with humans. Further, although meaningful age-related differences were sometimes found, many aspects of referential communication seem to be preserved in aging. These findings enhance our understanding of referential behavior in aging in the context of interacting with artificial agents and also inform the design of future technologies.Ph.D

Aging and Social Robots: How Overspecification Affects Real-Time Language Processing

Despite the rise in communicative technologies for healthy aging, little research has focused on how effectively older adults process language spoken by artificial agents. We explore whether a robot's redundant (but potentially helpful) descriptions facilitate real-time comprehension in younger and older listeners. Gaze was recorded as participants heard instructions like "Tap on the [purple/closed] umbrella" for a display containing eight unique objects. We manipulated the description (no-adjective, color-adjective, state-adjective) and the visual context, specifically whether there was another object bearing the property denoted by the adjective (purple/closed notebook). Relative to the no-adjective condition, redundant color adjectives speeded comprehension when they uniquely identified targets, whereas (less-salient) state adjectives always impeded comprehension. No age-related differences were observed. Paralleling human-human studies, language processing in human-robot communication is facilitated when salient information narrows visual search. Together, these findings help inform the future design of communicative technologies

Younger and Older Speakers' Use of Linguistic Redundancy with a Social Robot

Social robotics has shown expansive growth in areas related to companionship/assistance for older adults. Critically, everyday interactions with artificial agents often involve spoken language in the context of a shared visual environment. Therefore, language interfaces for these applications must account for the distinctive nature of visually-situated communication revealed by psycholinguistic studies. In traditional frameworks, "rational" speakers were thought to avoid redundancy, yet human-human communication research shows that both younger and older speakers include redundant information (e.g., color adjectives) in descriptions to facilitate listeners' visual search. However, this "cooperative" use of redundant expressions hinges on beliefs about listeners' perception (e.g., "pop-out" nature of human color processing). We explored the incidence and nature of younger and older speakers' redundant descriptions for a robot partner in different visual environments. Whereas both age groups produced redundant descriptions, there were important age differences for when these descriptions occurred and for the properties encoded in them

M & M: Modifiers and their Effect on Memory in Younger and Older Adults

Modification is often required to differentiate potential referents in discourse context and enhances future memory for those referents. Not yet known is whether the type of modifier produced by younger and older adults differentially affects their object memory. We investigated the use of modifiers and whether it affects memory in younger and older adults. Further, we examined whether the effects vary depending on the type of modifiers produced, namely color versus state. Participants were asked to describe an object that was accompanied by a same-category object of different color or different state, or an unrelated object. A follow-up memory task then assessed their recognition memory. Older adults overspecified more than younger adults. Although modifiers improved memory for both age groups, older adults showed better memory performance. The current finding suggests a link between language production and memory, but we did not observe evidence that specific types of modifiers affected memory

Introducing the VIMSSQ: Measuring susceptibility to visually induced motion sickness

Visually induced motion sickness (VIMS) is a specific form of motion sickness caused by dynamic visual content such as Virtual Reality applications. Predicting individual susceptibility to VIMS has proven to be difficult and a reliable method has yet to emerge. Here, we introduce the Visually Induced Motion Sickness Susceptibility Questionnaire (VIMSSQ), a modification of the Motion Sickness Susceptibility Questionnaire uniquely designed to predict the susceptibility to VIMS specifically. Scores on the VIMSSQ are based on incidences of nausea, headache, fatigue, dizziness, and eyestrain during the past use of visual devices. In this proof-of-concept study, 71 adult participants (34 younger, 37 older) engaged in a simulated driving task and VIMS was measured using the Fast Motion Sickness Scale. Strong correlations with the reported level of VIMS were found for the nausea aspects of the VIMSSQ, suggesting that the VIMSSQ may be a useful tool to estimate individuals’ susceptibility to VIMS

Driving Habits of a Cohort of Older Canadians: A COMPASS-ND Study

Older adults can experience declines in their cognitive abilities, which could affect their ability to engage in daily activities such as driving. Here, we compare the driving habits of older adults across different cognitive groups: cognitively healthy older adults (control), Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD), Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). We analyzed data from the large-scale Comprehensive Assessment of Neurodegeneration and Dementia study (COMPASS-ND, Chertkow et al., 2019). Results revealed that the AD group drove the least often and shortest distances. Interestingly, on several measures, the SCD group was more like the MCI group than the control group (driving frequency, restrictions), suggesting that even subjective declines were associated with differences in driving habits. We will further discuss how these results are influenced by sensory and demographic factors. Driving-related limitations could reduce older adults’ participation and access to essential resources, in turn, negatively affecting their physical and mental health