Investigating behavioural effects of alarm systems with adaptable thresholds on younger and older adults using an alarm based pedestrian assistance system

行人警报系统(AS)可以帮助交通状况中的老年人。AS可以通过通知行人有车辆驶来来弥补与年龄有关的知觉和注意力缺陷。然而，人们在调整自己的行为以适应AS时往往会遇到问题。这些问题在老年人中尤为突出。此外，流量的动态变化意味着关键事件的基本速率的变化。这些波动导致会计准则的行为发生变化，从而使人们的行为调整更加复杂。具有可变阈值的AS的创新概念代表了具有固定阈值的传统AS的替代方案。用户不需要根据系统调整他们自己的行为，而是可以定制AS的行为，并在情况发生变化时随时进行调整。拟议项目的目的是扩大对AS的认识，并根据用户群体和情况的特征设定适当的门槛。将审查(1)与固定阈值相比，具有自适应阈值的AS是否通常导致更适当的使用和更好的性能，(2)老年用户是否从具有自适应阈值的AS中受益，以及(3)尤其是在动态情况下，具有自适应阈值的AS是否比具有固定阈值的AS更有用。为了回答这些问题，将进行四项两项研究。具有自适应阈值的AS和具有固定阈值的AS分别在年轻和年长用户的双重任务范例中被检查。一种新开发的行人模拟作为测试环境。在每个实验中，基本速率将随着流量的变化而变化。因变量是信任、行为和绩效。这些研究的发现可以在基础研究领域产生新的知识。因此，它们可以为领域无关的问题提供解决方案，如哭狼效应。预计结果也可以转移到其他用例中。这适用于在女贞部门和不同工作领域使用的AS，只要AS用于关键事件的基本比率不断变化的情况。

Alarm systems (AS) for pedestrians could help older people in traffic situations. AS can compensate for age-related deficits with regard to perception and attention by notifying pedestrians of approaching cars. However, people often experience problems in adjusting their behaviour to AS. These problems are especially prominent in older people. Moreover, dynamic changes in the amount of traffic imply changes in the base rate of critical events. These fluctuations cause changes in the behaviour of the AS and therefore complicate the adjustment of peoples behaviour even more. The innovative concept of AS with adaptable threshold represents an alternative to conventional AS with fixed threshold. Instead of adjusting their own behaviour to the system, users can customize the behaviour of the AS and adapt it at any time when the situation changes.The aim of the proposed project is to broaden the knowledge about AS with adaptable threshold with regard to user groups and characteristics of the situation. It will be examined (1) whether AS with adaptable threshold generally lead to more appropriate use and better performance compared to AS with fixed threshold, (2) whether older users benefit from AS with adaptable threshold and (3) whether AS with adaptable thresholds are of greater utility than AS with fixed threshold especially in dynamic situations. To answer these questions, four two studies will be conducted. An AS with adaptable threshold and an AS with fixed threshold are each examined within a dual-task paradigm with younger and older users. A newly developed pedestrian simulation serves as test environment. In each of the experiments the base rate will be varied through changes in traffic. Dependent variables are trust, behaviour and performance.Findings from the studies can generate new knowledge in the field of AS basic research. Therefore they can provide solutions for domain independent problems like the cry wolf effect. It is expected that results can be transferred to other use cases as well. This holds true for AS used in the privet sector as well as in different working domains, as long as the AS are used in situations with changing base rates of critical events.