ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT Four experiments are presented to describe some factors influencing the adoption of adaptive strategies by older drivers. ( 1 ) A case control study with 40 senior drivers (mean age 66 years) has been conducted to evaluate, in real road setting, their driving perfonnance . Results showed that, cognitive and perceptive declines only cxplain a small part of the variance of thc driving errors and that case group (volunteers having at l east 3 accidents during a three year period) commits morc violations . To better understand the influence of aberrant driving behavior a complementary approach has been dcveloped. (2) We studied, in a sample of 568 older drivcrs (mean age 7 1 years), the impact o f self-evaluation o f functional abilities and declared aberrant driving behavior on the self-reported driving avoidance through questionnaires . Sequential multiple linear regressions revealed that 8 variables accounted for 49% of the variance in self-imposed driving limitations in the whole sample. The study suggests that pcrceived abilities, especially self-assessed driving-related processing speed and attention abilities play a major role in the decision to avoid difficult driving situations . (3) Then, we explored the impact of the awareness of functional abilities on driving avoidance. Seventy-six drivers took part in the experiment (mean age 76 years) . We measured the differences betwecn thc subjective and objective evaluations of skills in three areas : vision, speed of processing and selective attention. A strong heterogcneity
has been observed between participants in their functional abi l ities awareness . This study highlights the fact that people underestimating their attentional abilities reduce their mobility while people overestimating the same abilities are less avoiding difficult driving situations and probably are more exposed to accident risk. (4) In a last experiment we explored how older drivers cope behaviorally with difficult driving situations. Twenty-one younger drivers (mean age 30 years) and sixteen older drivers (mean age 72 years) drove on simulator through four circuits of increasing difficulty. In spite of the older drivers ' lower level of chosen difficulty, both younger and older adults proceeded from easier to harder items during their training which refers to a well adapted self-regulation. These results are jo intly presented to illustrate the influence of self-evaluation and self-regulation on the driving activity of older drivers so as to conclude on future research.
