Video taped eye fixations and saccades were analysed for a total of 80 (32 night time, 48 daytime) young, healthy unfamiliar drivers, driving along a rural two lane highway in Ohio, either under daytime or under night time (low beams) conditions for the approach to a yellow diamond shaped curve or turn warning sign with a black curve/turn arrow symbol. The first-look distance (longitudinal distance measured from the sign to a driver's eyes at which a driver starts to foveally fixate the sign for the first time), last-look distance (the distance measured from the sign to a driver's eyes where he/she moves the eyes away from the sign for the last time before reaching the sign), number of looks and durations of looks at the warning sign were of main interest in this study. The results of this study show that there are, in general, no major eye scanning behaviour differences for reading these types of symbolic warning signs between the daytime and the night time conditions. Further, the results of this study and a previous similar study indicate that drivers look on the average about two times at a symbolic warning sign during the approach.
Abstract