Mental training to improve driving skills through video games, for adolescents and older adults

Last month at an MIT event in Northern California, we discussed what specific applications could take computer-based brain training to a new level and highlighted the potential for testing and improving driving skills.

Assessing and improving driving skills would be a prime candidate, given the well-defined nature of the need and the emergence of programs with growing evidence (both scientific and real-world) behind it.

In this regard, the New York Times has just published an article entitled “Are You a Good Driver? Here’s How to Find Out.” Some quotes:

– “COULD a video game make you a better driver? More importantly, could computer software prevent teens from making fatal mistakes or even eliminate older drivers whose weaknesses make them prone to accidents?”

– “There are already programs like AAA’s Roadwise Review (about $ 15), which aim to help seniors evaluate their driving.”

– “There are other programs that will test mental agility and then use subsequent computer training sessions to improve driver skills. One of those programs is an online application called DriveFit ($ 89), which was developed by CogniFit, an Israeli company. specializing in training software, DriveFit uses visual and memory tests to measure 12 cognitive skills related to driving. “

A question we often get when talking to insurance companies, “can we really train drivers to act smarter behind the wheel”? Well, it depends on what “smarter” means (we don’t know of brain training programs to make drivers avoid alcohol or drugs that induce sleep before driving), but there is growing evidence that specific cognitive skills that are important for driving can, in fact, be trained, which translates into better driving results.

A key research reference: the studies published by Dr. Karlene Ball and Dr. Jerri Edwards. We were fortunate to interview Dr. Edwards, and this is what she had to say when I asked her to explain the results of her 2003 paper on human factors (Roenker, D., Cissell, G., Ball, K. , Wadley, V., & Edwards, J. (2003). Processing speed and driving simulator training result in improved driving performance. Human Factors, 45: 218-233):

– “Our goal was to train what is called the” useful field of view. “The useful field of view is a measure of processing speed and visual attention that is critical to driving performance, and one of the areas that decreases with age. It was previously shown that this skill can be improved with training, so we wanted to see what effect it would have on the driving performance of older adults and if the training would be more or less effective than a traditional simulation course. of conduction.

– For the study, we divided forty-eight adults over the age of fifty-five into two intervention groups of twenty-four people each. Each group received twenty hours of training. One group was exposed to a traditional driving simulator, where they learned specific driving behaviors. The other one went through the cognitive training program.

– The driving performance of both groups improved immediately after their respective programs, but most of the benefits of the driving simulator disappeared at eighteen months.

– The processing speed intervention helped participants not only improve the ‘useful field of vision’, the skill that was directly trained, but also transferred to real-life driving, and the results were maintained after 18 months. And by the way, the assessment was as real as one can imagine – a 14-mile open road assessment.

– Faster processing speed appeared to allow adults to react better to unexpected events that require a quick response and to reduce by 40% the number of dangerous maneuvers on real roads (defined as those that required the training instructor to intervene during the evaluation ). “

Note: The program used in that study, called Visual Awareness, was recently acquired by Posit Science Corporation.

In short, you will most likely answer YES to the question used to open the New York Times article. A well-designed video game CAN make you a better driver.

Of course, this is an emerging field, and much more research needs to be done before applications become commonplace, but the field certainly deserves more attention, research dollars, and involvement from insurance companies to design and conduct trials in it. real world.

Allstate: How about spending just a fraction of your ad campaign’s ad campaign budget exploring additional possible solutions?

Copyright (c) 2008 SharpBrains