The Critical Point to Step into a Hole is Similar in Young and Older Adults

The avoidance of a hole in the pathway while walking has been systematically investigated; however, depending on the dimensions of the hole, the option to avoid it is infeasible, and it is necessary to use the so-called accommodation strategy to step into the hole. We investigated the critical point between the avoidance and accommodation strategies when dealing with a hole in the ground during locomotion of young and older adults. Young and older adults performed two tasks: verbal estimation and walking. We used holes of different lengths and constant depth (12 cm). In the verbal estimation task, participants stood and looked at each hole and verbally respond if they would step into or avoid it. In the walking task, they walked and chose to either step or avoid the hole. Both age groups preferred to step into the hole when it was larger than 1.3 times their foot length in both tasks. The perception of affordances of young and older adults to step into a hole was similar, and it was unaffected by the investigated tasks. Thus, our participants preferred to have a safety margin that was large enough to guarantee that the whole foot would accommodate within the hole.