title: Relationships Between Older Drivers' Cognitive Abilities as Assessed on the MoCA and Glance Patterns During Visual-Manual Radio Tuning While Driving.
abstract: Research has established that long off-road glances increase crash risk, and other work has shown increased off-road glance behavior in older drivers. This study investigated the relationship between older drivers' (M = 66.3, range 61-69 years) cognitive abilities and the duration of off-road glances while engaged in secondary visual-manual activities.
  
  
  
  Twenty-two drivers completed the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) prior to driving an instrumented vehicle and completing a set of radio-tuning tasks. Glance behavior was recorded and manually coded into 7 glance regions (toward the forward roadway, instrument cluster, center stack, rearview mirror, left, right, and other).
  
  
  
  On average, older drivers with higher MoCA scores used shorter glances and glanced away from the forward roadway for less total time when manually tuning the radio.
  
  
  
  These findings suggest that lower MoCA scores may represent a driving force behind the "age" differences reported in earlier studies of off-road glance behavior. Questions are raised concerning the identification of MoCA scores that might be used as inclusion cut-points in driving research and in identifying individuals needing further evaluation related to suitability for continuance of driving.
authors.affiliation: MIT AgeLab and New England University Transportation Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Joonbum
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: MIT AgeLab and New England University Transportation Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mehler
authors.affiliation: MIT AgeLab and New England University Transportation Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Bryan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Reimer
authors.affiliation: Collaborative Safety Research Center, TEMA, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
authors.forename: Kazutoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ebe
authors.affiliation: MIT AgeLab and New England University Transportation Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Joseph F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Coughlin
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001288:Attention; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003071:Cognition; D000071826:Distracted Driving / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005133:Eye Movements; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000073456:Multitasking Behavior; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011845:Radio