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Updated: Apr 29, 2026
Driving Simulation in the Clinic: Testing Visual Exploratory Behavior in Daily Life Activities in Patients with Visual Field Defects
Published on: September 18, 2012
The drive-wise project: driving simulator training increases real driving performance in healthy older drivers
Gianclaudio Casutt1, Nathan Theill2, Mike Martin3
1Division of Neuropsychology, Department of Psychology, University of Zurich Zurich, Switzerland ; Division of Gerontopsychology, Department of Psychology, University of Zurich Zurich, Switzerland ; International Normal Aging and Plasticity Research Centre Zurich Zurich, Schwitzerland.
Background:
Age-related cognitive decline is often associated with unsafe driving behavior. We hypothesized that 10 active training sessions in a driving simulator increase cognitive and on-road driving performance. In addition, driving simulator training should outperform cognitive training.
Methods:
Ninety-one healthy active drivers (62-87 years) were randomly assigned to one of three groups: (1) a driving simulator training group, (2) an attention training group (vigilance and selective attention), or (3) a control group. The main outcome variables were on-road driving and cognitive performance. Seventy-seven participants (85%) completed the training and were included in the analyses. Training gains were analyzed using a multiple regression analysis with planned orthogonal comparisons.
Results:
The driving simulator-training group showed an improvement in on-road driving performance compared to the attention-training group. In addition, both training groups increased cognitive performance compared to the control group.
Conclusion:
Driving simulator training offers the potential to enhance driving skills in older drivers. Compared to the attention training, the simulator training seems to be a more powerful program for increasing older drivers' safety on the road.
