The importance of reaction time, cognition, and meta-cognition abilities for drivers with visual deficits
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The importance of reaction time, cognition, and meta‑cognition abilities for drivers with visual deficits Jan Andersson1 · Björn Peters1 Received: 19 June 2019 / Accepted: 5 December 2019 © The Author(s) 2019
Abstract Individuals who do not fulfill required visual field standards have their driving license withdrawn in Sweden. However, understanding of the ability to compensate for this loss is limited. This study aimed to determine if reaction time and cognitive performance are important for safe driving in visual field loss (VFL) individuals. Visually demanding reaction time tasks of different complexity, for example, can help one understand why some VFL individuals drive as safely as normally sighted individuals. Twenty VFL individuals and 83 normally sighted individuals participated in a driving simulator experiment and an additional test battery. The driving task categorized VFL participants into two subgroups: passed or failed. Three reaction time tasks, four cognitive tests, and two meta-cognitive scales were completed. The passed VFL subgroup was faster than the failed subgroup in the context-dependent reaction time task and slower in the context-independent reaction time task. The passed subgroup performed equally well, or less well, on the cognitive tasks compared to the failed subgroup. The VFL participants performed less well than the normally sighted individuals on most cognitive tasks. However, VFL participants did not reflect on their driving ability (in meta-cognitive scales) in the same way as normally sighted individuals. There appear to be VFL subgroups in terms of ability to drive safely. Reaction time is important, but context dependent. Cognitive contextindependent tests appear unrelated to driving test outcome for VFL individuals. The problems with context-independent testing of perceptual, cognitive, and meta-cognitive abilities when predicting safe driving capabilities are discussed. Keywords Visual field loss · Meta-cognitive ratings · Reaction time performance · Cognitive performance · Driving safety
1 Introduction 1.1 Visual ability and driving performance Good visual ability has long been deemed crucial for safe driving behavior (e.g., Wood and Black 2016). Thus, the vision requirements for holding a driving license are quite strict. However, the relationship between visual ability and safe driving is not completely understood (Owsley and McGwin 2010). Visual field defects can be a cause for license withdrawal or denial. Visual field defects are commonly caused by stroke, glaucoma, or diabetes. When the visual field extent does not meet the minimum stipulated by the * Jan Andersson [email protected] Björn Peters [email protected] 1
Human Factors, Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute, VTI, Linköping, Sweden
EU directive (e.g., a binocular field of at least 40 degrees vertical and 120 degrees horizontal; see Lindblom 2011, and Commission Directive 2009/113/EC, for details), the Swedish Transport Agency withdraw the driving license. Visua
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