Human Factors of Visual and Cognitive Performance in Driving
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
HUMAN FACTORS OF VISUAL AND COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE IN DRIVING HUMAN FACTORS OF VISUAL AND COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE IN DRIVING EDITED BY CÁNDIDA CASTRO Boca Raton London New York CRC Press is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300 Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742 © 2009 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business No claim to original U.S. Government works Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-4200-5530-6 (Hardcover) This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher can- not assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The authors and publishers have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication and apologize to copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not been obtained. If any copyright material has not been acknowledged please write and let us know so we may rectify in any future reprint. Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. For permission to photocopy or use material electronically from this work, please access www.copy- right.com (http://www.copyright.com/) or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that pro- vides licenses and registration for a variety of users. For organizations that have been granted a photocopy license by the CCC, a separate system of payment has been arranged. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Human factors of visual and cognitive performance in driving / editor, Candida Castro. p. cm. “A CRC title.” Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4200-5530-6 1. Automobile drivers--Mental health. 2. Automobile driving--Physiological aspects. 3. Visual perception. 4. Cognitive psychology. I. Castro, Cándida. II. Title. TL152.35.H86 2009 629.28’3--dc22 2008020511 Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at http://www.taylorandfrancis.com and the CRC Press Web site at http://www.crcpress.com Dedication To Irene, my youngest daughter, who was born at the same time as this book. To Pedro, David, and Laura, my sons and daughter too. Contents Preface.......................................................................................................................ix Acknowledgments .................................................................................................. xiii The Editor ................................................................................................................xv List of Contributors ................................................................................................xvii Contributors ............................................................................................................xix Chapter 1 Visual Demands and Driving ............................................................1 Cándida Castro Chapter 2 Visual Requirements of Vehicular Guidance ................................. 31 Frank Schieber, Ben Schlorholtz, and Robert McCall Chapter 3 Estimations in Driving ..................................................................... 51 Justin F. Morgan and Peter A. Hancock Chapter 4 A Two-Dimensional Framework for Understanding the Role of Attentional Selection in Driving .................................................63 Lana M. Trick and James T. Enns Chapter 5 Driver Distractions ........................................................................... 75 Miguel A. Recarte and Luis M. Nunes Chapter 6 Experience and Visual Attention in Driving ..................................89 Geoffrey Underwood, Peter Chapman, and David Crundall Chapter 7 The Environment: Roadway Design, Environmental Factors, and Conflicts .................................................................... 117 Marieke H. Martens, Rino F.T. Brouwer, and A. Richard A. van der Horst Chapter 8 On Allocating the Eyes: Visual Attention and In-Vehicle Technologies .................................................................................... 151 William J. Horrey vii viii Contents Chapter 9 Enhancing Safety by Augmenting Information Acquisition in the Driving Environment .......................................................... 167 Monica N. Lees and John D. Lee Chapter 10 Crossmodal Information Processing in Driving ......................... 187 Charles Spence and Cristy Ho Chapter 11 Interventions to Reduce Road Trauma ........................................ 201 Narelle Haworth Chapter 12 On Not Getting Hit: The Science of Avoiding Collisions and the Failures Involved in That Endeavor .......................................223 Peter A. Hancock Index ...................................................................................................................... 253 Preface I find it difficult to separate my reflections on my chapter from my general reflec- tions on the book as a whole. The contents of this book are more than just academic information about human factors of visual and cognitive performance in driving. Nowadays, we are still asking ourselves the same crucial question concerning road accidents proposed by Gibson nearly a century ago: “What goes on when a man drives an automobile?” In fact, no other machine by itself leaves so many people have access to such a high-risk system in which their own lives are critically at risk. “Of all the skills demanded by contemporary civilization, the one of driving an auto- mobile is certainly, the most important to the individual, in the sense, at least, that a defect in it is the greatest threat to his life” (Gibson and Crooks, 1938). Driving is an active search process through which information is selected and trans- formed. However, this process is complex. Road users are exposed on their journeys to a multitude of stimuli that are mainly visual. They must make a choice based on these stimuli that will in turn determine their behavior. Within this concept, the driver is an information processor. However, humans are inherently creatures of restricted capacity; that is, we are able to process only a limited amount of sensory informa- tion at any given time. Driver inattention represents one of the leading causes of car accidents. The advent of new, complex in-vehicle technologies, such as satellite-based global positioning systems (GPS), cellular phones, and so forth, and the increased power of computers are in the process of revolutionizing many aspects of transporta- tion, but, at the same time, they are exacerbating the driver’s attentional limitations. The driver should interpret the available information continuously, so as to predict how a situation might evolve without him taking any action and how it might change depending on his decisions. The possible consequences of all the options open to him have to be estimated and considered all the time. The driver is constantly mak- ing decisions related to his journey, based on his interpretation of the situation and his forecast of the future state of the increasingly complex system he is controlling. These decisions lead to actions. This definition of the complex behavior of driving can be enriched by an analysis from different perspectives, such as that of cognitive and ergonomic psychology. This work is undoubtedly a step in that direction. A good understanding of it will depend on: • Allowing for the driver’s information processing limitations. • Being able to explain how the psychological processes involved in driving work: perception, memory, attention, decision making, learning, motiva- tion, and motor responses. • Analyzing person–machine or person–vehicle interaction, assessing the degree to which driving responds to well-known ergonomic criteria, com- fort, safety and productivity, staff selection and training, and so forth. ix x Preface • Understanding in greater depth the subtasks involved in driving: those carried out continuously such as tracking, by which the vehicle adapts its displacement to the bends in the road; and others that are carried out simul- taneously and intermittently, such as changing gears, and which in part become automatic reactions. No less important are tasks such as informa- tion acquisition from the road environment, traffic devices, or from inside the vehicle. • Considering the changes that take place regarding navigation tasks. Those tasks that include geographic and visual–spatial elements also become important, especially when driving in unfamiliar areas. The onset of new technologies, such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS) by satellite and the growing power of computers, is revolutionizing many aspects of both land and air transport. However, it is not all positive, and of all the machines that man handles and interacts with,