Authors: Haley Johnson Bishop Fred J Biasini Despina Stavrinos
Publish Date: 2017/01/10
Volume: 47, Issue: 4, Pages: 905-917
Abstract
Driving is a complex task that relies on manual cognitive visual and social skill The social demands of driving may be challenging for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder ASD due to known social impairments This study investigated how drivers with ASD respond to social eg pedestrians and nonsocial eg vehicles hazards in a driving simulator compared to typically developing drivers Overall participants responded faster to social hazards than nonsocial hazards It was also found that drivers with typical development reacted faster to social hazards while drivers with ASD showed no difference in reaction time to social versus nonsocial hazards Future work should further investigate how social impairments in ASD may affect driving safetyThe research described in this paper was supported by grants to the author from the UAB Civitan International Research Center the American Psychological Foundation the Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship Program through the US Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration and the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Psychology Use of the STISIM driving simulator was made possible by the UAB Edward R Roybal Center for Translational Research in Aging and Mobility NIH/NIA Grant No 5 P30 AG02283809 and a grant from the National Institute on Aging NIH/NIA Grant No 5 R01 AG00573924Thank you to the members of my thesis committee for their valuable feedback on this project Dr Despina Stavrinos Dr Fred Biasini and Dr Robin Lanzi I would also like to thank the people and organizations that helped with study recruitment Brooke Bowles Triumph Services Dr Sarah Ryan UA ACTS Program Dr Rachel Fargason UAB Adult Psychiatry Dr Marsha Sturdevant Children’s of Alabama Adolescent Health Center Paige Hebson Craig Rogers and Yolanda Spencer Vocational Rehabilitation Services of Alabama Valerie Dubose UAB Disability Support Services Dr Kristi Guest and Dr Sarah O’Kelley UAB Civitan Sparks Clinic and Dr Andrea Winslett Grayson and Associates The authors would also like to acknowledge Peyton Mosely and Dr Andrea Underhill for their help in editing and finalizing the manuscriptHJB conceived of the study participated in its design and coordination performed the measurement performed and interpreted statistical analyses and drafted the manuscript FJB participated in its design and revised the manuscript DS conceived of the study participated in its design and coordination participated in interpretation of the data and revised the manuscript All authors read and approved the final manuscript
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