Comprehension for sign: Age - related differences

They used 480 volunteer licensed drivers in the USA and Canada. The sample included 85 color slides of standard US sign symbols. Older drivers had poorer understanding than younger ones in 39% of the symbols examined; for the remainder there were no differences with respect to age. Dewar et al.(1994) Transportation Research Record 1456 (1994) 1-10

A survey of Illinois older drivers showed that older drivers fail to understand some of the common traffic control devices. Jones, R.W. (1992) Traffic Safety, 11(6) (1992), 6-9

Older drivers tend to do less well at sign comprehension than other drivers including novice drivers and repeat violators. Shinar D. et al. (2003) ERGONOMICS, 2003, VOL. 46, NO. 15, 1549 – 1565

The participants’ responses to each sign were coded into one of the following four categories of accuracy: Correct and complete (coded as +2), partially correct (e.g. no turn, instead of no left turn—coded as +1), incorrect (0), or opposite of the true sign meaning (e.g., giving priority to traffic in my direction instead of giving priority to on-coming traffic—coded as 72).

Older participants performed much more poorly than younger participants, both before (37% vs. 52% correct) and after training (68% vs. 88% correct on the immediate post-test), and found it more difficult to reject incorrect meanings (55% vs. 68% correct). Lesch M.F. (2003) Journal of Safety Research 34 (2003) 495– 505

Because aging is generally associated with declines in various perceptual and cognitive abilities (vision and working memory), older participants performed much more poorly than younger participants. Hancock et al. (1999) In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 43rd Annual Meeting (pp )

The differences between the different age groups showed that drivers in the younger age group (16–24 years) comprehend significantly less well than those in the older groups (35–44 and over 44 years). Al-Madani, H. and Al-Janahi, A. R. (2002) Accident Analysis and Prevention 34 (2002) 185–196

Drivers comprehension of signs should increase with both experience and age. Drivers representing eldest and most experienced ones should be the most knowledgeable in traffic sign recognition and youngest and least experienced should be the least knowledgeable. Al-Madani, H. and Al-Janahi, A. R. (2002) Transportation Research Part F 5 (2002) 63–76 Transportation Research Part F 5 (2002) 361–374