Change Blindness Essay

Millions of people drive each day, some heading to work, some to vacation destinations, some to entertainment, and some just for fun. Within these millions, there are all types of drivers; aggressive, passive, new, experienced, and elderly to name a few. The elderly comprise of more than 40 million people age 65 and older in the United States and of those 40 million, 34 million are licensed drivers (NHTSA). Elderly driving has become an alarming subject throughout many communities in the United States as it concerns the safety and health of themselves as well as other drivers. One article shares, as 80-year-old Daniel was driving to the grocery store one day, he ran over a curb and hit a trash can. Luckily he was not hurt and his car suffered only minor scratches. Although unscathed, Daniel was emotionally distraught having almost hit a young woman waiting at the bus stop (Older Drivers). This story as well as many others has triggered a crucial debate about the rights and well-being of senior drivers. Most people believe these older drivers should have an age restriction determining when they should and should not be able drive. However, getting older does not mean people lose all capability to drive. In opposition, driving and health tests should be required at the age of 65 to prove they are capable of safe driving rather than revoking their licenses.

Specifically, this study demonstrates that a distraction can make it more difficult to find changes in an environment within a timely manner. This is important to know so that we are aware of the danger change blindness can pose to us when we are in situations that demand good vision and reflexes. This information will also be helpful in making driving as safe as possible, so that when we are teaching new drivers they can be informed about how much a simple distraction such as music or another person in the car talking can impair their ability to see new dangers in their environment and avoid getting into an

In this article “Distracted Driving”, many distractions are mentioned other than just cell phone usage, such as changing the radio station or driving with kids in the back seat. It is stated that the dangers from distracted driving are because of the decrease in brain function and inability to pay full attention to the road. These practices lead to wrecks and in many cases death.

Change blindness shows surprising perception phenomenon that is noticed through the visual change of stimulus introduced and observers do not notice the change. When observer fails to observe and notice the change major changes and differences introduced into an image at a flick off and on again. People having poor ability in detecting the changes are argued to have limitation of human attention (Hecht-Nielsen & McKenna, 2003). Change blindness has provided a wide range of research that has important and practical implications especially in eyewitness position and distraction while driving among other areas.

The mental and physical capabilities of older drivers are an increasing issue that can affect how someone drives. States are making the format for getting a driver’s

a. Our vision is one of the most “important sense for safe driving,” but when our visual field is distracted, our peripheral vision decreases, causing tunnel vision or inattention blindness causing drivers not to process everything in the roadway that must be observed and fully analyzed, such as road hazards and responding to unexpected situations. (Brodie, 2008).

Once people reach a certain age their health starts to degrade. It is more severe with some people than with others because it can faster to some people and slower to others. This severely affects a person’s driving capabilities. You need to have keen vision to spot hazards on the road.

Salvia, E., Petit, C., Champely, S., Chomette, R., Di Rienzo, F., & Collet, C. (2016). Effects of Age and Task Load on Drivers' Response Accuracy and Reaction Time When Responding to Traffic Lights. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. Retrieved from

The loss of physical strength makes it difficult to maneuver a motor vehicle. A Driver is required to use necessary body parts such as their head and neck to check for blind spots before changing lanes and their hands and arms to grip the steering wheel. Elderly driver’s reflexes are much slower than when they were younger. Their response time to traffic signals, reacting to unexpected pedestrians and other motorists moving in front of them is slower.

Data were analyzed using a linear regression model where the average time taken to notice a change was used as a dependent variable, and the age was used as an independent variable. This analysis revealed that there is not a significant difference between age and the amount of time that it took any individual to notice a change, F (1, 224) = 3.52, p = .06. Results show that there was an insignificant increase of .27 seconds in time taken to notice the change between ages. Age explained 1% of the variance in time taken to notice the change in stimuli, r2 = .01.

In the United States, adults over the age of 65 account for 13% of the nation’s current licensed drivers. By the year 2030, researchers expect this number to increase above 20%, as the baby boomer population overtakes the traditionalist generation (Perkinson et al., 2005). With this number steadily rising, it’s startling to note that most adults outlive their driving abilities by six to ten years (Betz, Jones, Petroff, & Schwartz, 2013). Fatal crash rates per mile traveled increase after age 75 – the only demographic with higher rates being teenagers (Classen et al., 2006). Many of these collisions are attributed to aging-related cognitive diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or dementia. Since most adult drivers do outlive

“An eighty-six year old man killed ten people and injured more than seventy when he drove his Buick into a crowded farmers market in California. In Florida, an eighty-four year old woman drove her car through a window of a Sears and into a cash register and employee” (Murphy). Sadly enough, instances like these are becoming more and more prevalent and require immediate action. It is imperative that a more comprehensive approach be taken when deciding the competence of elderly drivers. Laws must be put into action to mandate and administer testing and re-examining of the skills and eligibility of this group. Equally important, we must consider those who will no longer be able to drive, and ensure their transportation and occupational needs

Many concerns have been expressed about the potential dangers elderly drivers present when operating a vehicle. Mental and physical capabilities begin to decline as a person ages. When their health deteriorates, the well being of other individuals on the road is at stake. Many elderly drivers should not drive due to their medical history and the fact that they might suffer from possible side effects from taking multiple prescription medicines. In addition, local organizations and neighbors can provide transportation for the elderly to keep them from endangering themselves and others. The threat senior citizens create when driving can be avoided if they are tested to ensure their competence as a driver.

As many states have implemented laws against distracting driving, I was interested to see how a person’s reaction time differed when they were concentrating to when they were distracted. I predicted a person’s mean reaction time would increase when they were distracted, compared to their concentrating reaction time.

Our daily task requires us to pay full attention towards them, with a full sense of concious. During those daily tasks our attention is divided among our surroundings. It gives us the ability to multitask, as we can foucus on multiple subjects at the same time. However, this ability declines as we age. Older adults have a difficcult time processing information in the visual periphery. Mnay researches have been done to compare young adult and older adults functional field of View (FFOV). Though the expectation for the results of the research was not met, by measuring the retinal area from which observers can collect information necessary to make specific judgements, we can determine the differnce between young adults and old adults attention span. The experiement applied the redundant target effect to compare it with single-target conditions. Through the experiemnets psychologists were only able to discover that genral cognition in older adults was