Twenty-four subjects (men and women from three age groups) read aloud words presented on two displays emulating written legends on automobile instrument panels while driving a simulated vehicle in nighttime conditons. The words were presented in 8 differnet chromaticities, two brightness levels, four character sizes, and two levels of word complexity. The results indicate that color of illumination per se had little effect on reading and driving performance but did have a reliable effect on subjective preference. Brightness had an effect on performance only for the two smaller character sizes. Character size had marked effects on both performane and subjective preferences. The two smaller character sizes yielded significant performance decrements for older drivers.
Abstract