A study conducted by a team from the University of Laval has shown that seniors use a different pedestrian avoidance strategy than young people when in a public place.
The results suggest that older people need more time to analyze the visual information they collect.
“As a result, their attention is drawn away from the obstacles that might be in their way,” explains Bradford McFadyen, a professor at Laval University School of Medicine. For older people with mobility or balance problems, this avoidance strategy could increase the risk of hitting an object or taking a wrong step that leads to a fall.
To arrive at these results, the team examined the evasion strategies of 14 young people, with an average age of 24, and 14 people older than 70 years. The participants moved in a virtual reality environment that represented a shopping mall.
“We asked them to walk towards a grocery counter at a normal pace,” the professor specifies. During the ride, a virtual pedestrian appeared in their field of vision and walked towards them. The participants had to work around it.”
Testing
During the tests, the research team measured, among other things, the observation time of the virtual pedestrian, the location at which the participants looked, the distance pedestrian-virtual pedestrian at the initiation of the detour and the minimum distance detour.
Their results showed that older adults:
- Looking at the virtual pedestrian 70% of the time, compared to 50% for young people;
- spend half as much time as young people engaging with the environment;
- spend twice as much time as teenagers watching the virtual pedestrian’s legs;
- initiate the diversion later when they approach the virtual pedestrian one meter.
When the virtual pedestrian moved without moving a limb, members of both groups started walking earlier, but the difference was more pronounced in older people.
“This indicates that the movements of the virtual pedestrian’s limbs are being used to plan the detour,” notes McFadyen. Without this information, participants, particularly older people, are more cautious.
The professor points out that the virtual environment used in the study could serve as a training tool to improve the avoidance strategy of people whose mobility is restricted due to age or health problems such as stroke. (NP)