The purpose of this study is to propose instruments that could measure the driving skills of elderlies as
well as train them. Situational awareness is 1. the perception of environmental elements in relation to time and/or space, 2. its overall comprehension, and 3. predicting the near future based on the present state.
Through previous studies, we could see that among various required cognitive abilities when driving, the
driver 's Verbal Working Memory Ability is significant at the level 1 (t=2.151, p<0.05), level 2 (t=2.908,
p<0.05), and level 3 (t=2.037, p<0.05) of situational awareness. As the Verbal Working Memory Ability is
involved with all three levels of situational awareness, the authors argued that it plays a critical role in
driving of elderlies.
Therefore, we proposed 3 training instruments in this study: 1) a training instrument that can measure
driving skills within a mobile environment by using the “reading width task” used to measure the Verbal
Working Memory Ability, 2) a training instrument that provides information related to signs and other
traffic information that can be helpful to the driver, 3) a training instrument that can promote the driver’s
awareness of dangerous situations during driving.