Useful Field Of View Performance Research Articles

Age influences visual attention characteristics among accident‐free and accident‐involved drivers

AbstractThe present study investigated age‐related characteristics of visual attention by employing a useful field of view (UFOV) format with a procedure consisting of a central target letter identification task and a peripheral target regularity discrimination task. This study aimed to examine the effects of aging on UFOV performance as well as the relationship between accident history and UFOV performance. Using divided and focused attention designs, the performance of participants in two age groups (younger, older) was examined in the central‐task and the peripheral‐task as a function of the participants' accident histories (accident‐free vs. accident‐involved). The results indicated that the cost of divided attention was most evident in the peripheral‐task and was significantly greater for older than younger participants. In particular, older participants had more difficulty processing events that were not part of their typical scan pattern. The results suggest that UFOV performance might function as an independent indicator of accident risk for younger adults. For older adults, evaluation of the UFOV performance in combination with self‐regulation and self‐assessment of driving behavior might be better indicators of accident risk.

Is Visual Selective Attention in Deaf Individuals Enhanced or Deficient? The Case of the Useful Field of View

BackgroundEarly deafness leads to enhanced attention in the visual periphery. Yet, whether this enhancement confers advantages in everyday life remains unknown, as deaf individuals have been shown to be more distracted by irrelevant information in the periphery than their hearing peers. Here, we show that, in a complex attentional task, a performance advantage results for deaf individuals.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe employed the Useful Field of View (UFOV) which requires central target identification concurrent with peripheral target localization in the presence of distractors – a divided, selective attention task. First, the comparison of deaf and hearing adults with or without sign language skills establishes that deafness and not sign language use drives UFOV enhancement. Second, UFOV performance was enhanced in deaf children, but only after 11 years of age.Conclusions/SignificanceThis work demonstrates that, following early auditory deprivation, visual attention resources toward the periphery slowly get augmented to eventually result in a clear behavioral advantage by pre-adolescence on a selective visual attention task.

Visual Attention Deficits are Associated with Driving Accidents in Cognitively-Impaired HIV-Infected Individuals

Previous research has found HIV-associated neuropsychological (NP) dysfunction to be associated with impaired driving skills. To determine whether specific impairments in visual attention impart an increased accident risk, we assessed 21 HIV seronegative (HIV-) and 42 seropositive (HIV+) participants on NP tests and the Useful Field of View (UFOV), a computerized test of visual attention. HIV+ participants performed significantly worse than the HIV- participants on the UFOV, particularly on the Divided Attention subtest. Poor UFOV performance was associated with higher accident rates in the past year, with a trend for NP impairment to also predict more accidents. The highest number of accidents occurred in the group with a “high risk” UFOV designation and NP impairment; this category correctly classified 93% of HIV+ participants as to who did, and did not, have an accident. Clinicians should attend to visual attention as well as general cognitive status in estimating which patients are at risk for impaired driving.

Cumulative Meta-analysis of the Relationship Between Useful Field of View and Driving Performance in Older Adults: Current and Future Implications

Driving is a complex behavior that requires the utilization of a wide range of individual abilities. Identifying assessments that not only capture individual differences, but also are related to older adults' driving performance would be beneficial. This investigation examines the relationship between the Useful Field of View (UFOV) assessment and objective measures of retrospective or concurrent driving performance, including state-recorded accidents, on-road driving, and driving simulator performance. The PubMed and PsycINFO databases were searched to retrieve eight studies that reported bivariate relationships between UFOV and these objective driving measures. Cumulative meta-analysis techniques were used to combine the effect sizes in an attempt to determine whether the strength of the relationship was stable across studies and to assess whether a sufficient number of studies have been conducted to validate the relationship between UFOV and driving performance. A within-group homogeneity of effect sizes test revealed that the samples could be thought of as being drawn from the same population, Q [7] = 11.29, p (one-tailed) = 0.13. Therefore, the effect sizes of eight studies were combined for the present cumulative meta-analysis. The weighted mean effect size across the studies revealed a large effect (Cohen's d = 0.945), with poorer UFOV performance associated with negative driving outcomes. This relationship was robust across multiple indices of driving performance and several research laboratories. This convergence of evidence across numerous studies using different methodologies confirms the importance of the UFOV assessment as a valid and reliable index of driving performance and safety. Recent prospective studies have confirmed a relationship between UFOV performance and future crashes, further supporting the use of this instrument as a potential screening measure for at-risk older drivers.

On-Road Driving with Moderate Visual Field Loss

We examined the relationship between visual field extent and driving performance in an open, on-road environment using a detailed scoring method that assessed the quality of specific skills for a range of maneuvers. The purpose was to determine which maneuvers and skills should be included in future, larger scale investigations of the effect of peripheral field loss on driving performance. Twenty-eight current drivers (67 +/- 14 years) with restricted peripheral visual fields participated. Binocular visual field extent was quantified using Goldmann perimetry (V4e target). The useful field of view (UFOV) and Pelli-Robson letter contrast sensitivity tests were administered. Driving performance was assessed along a 14-mile route on roads in the city of Birmingham, Alabama. The course included a representative variety of general driving maneuvers, as well as maneuvers expected to be difficult for people with restricted fields. Drivers with more restricted horizontal and vertical binocular field extents showed significantly (p < or = 0.05) poorer skills in speed matching when changing lanes, in maintaining lane position and keeping to the path of the curve when driving around curves, and received significantly (p < or = 0.05) poorer ratings for anticipatory skills. Deficits in UFOV performance and poorer contrast sensitivity scores were significantly (p < or = 0.05) correlated with overall driving performance as well as specific maneuver/skill combinations. In a small sample of drivers, mild to moderate peripheral visual field restrictions were adversely associated with specific driving skills involved in maneuvers for which a wide field of vision is likely to be important (however most were regarded as safe drivers). Further studies using similar assessment methods with drivers with more restricted fields are necessary to determine the minimum field extent for safe driving.