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

行人报警系统（AS）可以帮助老年人在交通状况。AS可以通过通知行人驶近的车辆来弥补与年龄相关的感知和注意力缺陷。然而，人们在调整自己的行为以适应阿斯伯格综合症时经常遇到问题。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。这些波动引起AS行为的变化，因此使人们行为的调整更加复杂化。自适应阈值自治系统的创新概念代表了传统的固定阈值自治系统的一种替代方案。用户不需要根据系统调整自己的行为，而是可以自定义应用服务器的行为，并在情况发生变化时随时进行调整。拟议项目的目的是根据用户群体和情况的特点，扩大关于具有可适应阈值的AS的知识。本文将研究(1)与固定阈值的自动识别系统相比，具有可适应阈值的自动识别系统是否通常会带来更适当的使用和更好的性能；(2)具有可适应阈值的自动识别系统是否会使老年用户受益；(3)具有可适应阈值的自动识别系统是否比具有固定阈值的自动识别系统更有用，特别是在动态情况下。为了回答这些问题，我们将进行四项研究。具有可适应阈值的应用服务器和具有固定阈值的应用服务器分别在具有年轻用户和老年用户的双任务范式中进行检查。新开发的行人仿真系统作为测试环境。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、行为和表现。这些研究成果可以为AS基础研究领域提供新的知识。因此，它们可以为诸如嚎叫狼效应之类的领域无关问题提供解决方案。预计结果也可以转移到其他用例中。只要在关键事件的基本比率不断变化的情况下使用AS，那么在私营部门和不同的工作领域中使用的AS都是如此。

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.