Department of Information Technology and Human Factors, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
PLoS One. 2020 Jul 10;15(7):e0236053. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236053. eCollection 2020.
Although unintended acceleration caused by pedal misapplication is a cause of traffic accidents, fatal accidents may be avoided if drivers realize their error immediately and quickly correct how they are stepping on the pedal. This correction behavior may decline with age because the rate of fatal accidents is fairly higher for older adults than for younger adults. To investigate this possibility, the present study recruited older adults (n = 40, age range = 67-81 years) as well as younger adults (n = 40, age range = 18-32 years). In this study, they performed a pedal stepping task during which they were required to stop the simulated vehicle as quickly as possible when a red signal was presented on a monitor. During most trials, the vehicle decelerated/stopped when the brake pedal was applied in a normal manner. In a few trials, however, stepping on the brake pedal resulted in sudden acceleration of the vehicle (i.e., the occurrence of the unintended acceleration); when this occurred, the participants had to release the pedal and re-step on another pedal to decelerate/stop the vehicle as quickly as possible. We focused on the age-related differences of the reaction latencies during three time periods: from the appearance of the red signal on the screen until stepping on the pedal (Period 1), from stepping on the pedal until the release of the pedal (Period 2), and from the release of the pedal until re-stepping of another pedal (Period 3). The results showed that there was no age-related difference in the latency of Period 1, p = .771, whereas those of Periods 2 and 3 were longer for the older adults (ps < .001). The results suggest that there are age-related differences in error detection and correction abilities under unintended situations with foot pedal manipulation.
虽然踏板误用引起的意外加速是交通事故的一个原因，但如果驾驶员能立即意识到自己的错误并迅速纠正踩踏方式，那么致命事故是可以避免的。由于老年人发生致命事故的比率比年轻人高，这种纠正行为可能会随着年龄的增长而减少。为了研究这种可能性，本研究招募了老年人（n=40，年龄范围：67-81 岁）和年轻人（n=40，年龄范围：18-32 岁）。在这项研究中，他们进行了一项踏板踩踏任务，当显示器上出现红色信号时，他们需要尽快使模拟车辆减速/停止。在大多数试验中，当以正常方式踩下制动踏板时，车辆会减速/停止。然而，在少数试验中，踩下制动踏板会导致车辆突然加速（即意外加速）；当这种情况发生时，参与者必须松开踏板并重新踩下另一个踏板，以尽快使车辆减速/停止。我们关注了三个时间段内反应潜伏期的年龄相关差异：从屏幕上出现红色信号到踩下踏板（第 1 期），从踩下踏板到松开踏板（第 2 期），以及从松开踏板到重新踩下另一个踏板（第 3 期）。结果表明，第 1 期的潜伏期没有年龄相关差异，p=.771，而第 2 期和第 3 期的潜伏期对老年人来说更长（p<.001）。研究结果表明，在涉及脚踏板操作的意外情况下，老年人在错误检测和纠正能力方面存在年龄相关差异。
