(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2023-08-09)
Lloyd, Maugan
Computerized cognitive training on the Useful Field of View (UFOV) is associated with improved driving behavior in older adults, but the underlying reasons remain subject to debate. Some researchers think that UFOV training enhances fundamental cognitive skills such as selective attention or processing speed, while others remain unconvinced of this so-called process-based approach. Typically, UFOV training includes a briefly presented central discrimination task, coupled with a consistently mapped (CM) peripheral localization task. As the peripheral stimuli for both target and distractors remain constant, perceptual learning would be expected with extended practice on the peripheral task. This study compared training on variably mapped targets (VM), in which targets and distractors come from the same set, and consistently mapped versions of a UFOV task to isolate the component of perceptual learning. When comparing the transfer cost for participants trained on an adaptive UFOV paradigm when transferred to unfamiliar stimuli, VM - trained groups do not exhibit the same performance decrements as CM – trained groups due to the difference in target familiarity. Specifically, we observed that transfer to new CM stimuli following extensive practice was associated with a large performance cost for the CM-trained group due to the loss of the familiar stimulus advantage (d = -1.31, t = -7.91, pbonf < 0.001), while smaller changes in performance were noted for VM trained participants transferred to new VM stimuli (d = -0.86, t = -4.93, pbonf < 0.001). Our findings suggest that future research exploring the relationship between cognitive or everyday task performance and training improvements on the UFOV must take the effects of perceptual learning into account. Furthermore, the study challenges previous assertions that UFOV training improves processing speed, which in turn improves older adult driving.