THE DRIVING-REACTION TIME TEST - ASSESSING AGE DECLINES IN DUAL-TASK PERFORMANCE

Persons in different age groups across the adult life span were compared on their ability to perform simultaneous tasks related to driving an automobile. Declines in performance with age were observed on both verbal recall tasks and reaction time tasks. Changes in reaction time were due primarily to cognitive rather than psychomotor factors. As expected, the greatest differences were found between subjects in the youngest age group (18 to 39 years) and those in the oldest (70 to 85 years). These findings and the prevalence of simultaneous processing requirements in everyday situations suggest that an ecological assessment of dual-task performance should be included in test batteries used with the aged.