Name: Maugan Lloyd

Master's Thesis Defense Meeting

Date: Monday, April 3, 2023

Time: 11am

Location: Hybrid: JS Coon Room 148

Zoom Meeting Link: Click here

Advisor: Chris Hertzog, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Thesis Committee Members:

Chris Hertzog, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Doby Rahnev, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Paul Verhaeghen, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

 Title: Testing the Useful Field: Perceptual Learning is an Important Factor in  UFOV Training Improvements 

Abstract: Recent research has established that computerized cognitive training on the Useful Field of View (UFOV) is associated with improved driving behavior in older adults, but the underlying reasons remain subject to debate. Some experts posit that UFOV training enhances fundamental cognitive skills such as selective attention or processing speed, while others remain unconvinced of this so-called process-based approach. Typically, UFOV training includes a central discrimination task that serves mainly to maintain fixation and add cognitive load, coupled with a consistently mapped (CM) peripheral localization task. As the peripheral stimuli for both target and distractors remain constant, perceptual learning would be expected with extended practice. This training typically utilizes a backward noise-masking paradigm with a variable presentation speed, administered by an adaptive staircase, and so participants improve their ability to find the target at shorter presentation times.

By comparing the transfer cost when transferred to new stimuli for participants trained on a custom-made adaptive UFOV paradigm under different mapping conditions, we found that variably mapped (VM) stimuli, in which targets and distractors come from the same set, do not exhibit the same performance increases borne of stimulus familiarity. Specifically, we observed that transfer to new CM stimuli following extensive practice was associated with a large performance cost for the CM-trained group due to the loss of the familiar stimulus advantage (d = -1.31, t = -7.91, pbonf < 0.001), while smaller changes in performance were noted for VM trained participants transferred to new VM stimuli (d = -0.86, t = -4.93, pbonf < 0.001). The findings suggest that future research exploring the relationship between cognitive or everyday task performance and training improvements on the UFOV must take the effects of perceptual learning into account. Furthermore, our study challenges previous assertions that UFOV training improves processing speed, which in turn improves older adult driving.