This paper describes the impact of two early studies examining eye movements in naturalistic driving environments: "Mapping Eye-Movement Pattern to the Visual Scene in Driving: An Exploratory Study" (Mourant & Rockwell, 1970) and "Strategies of Visual Search by Novice and Experienced Drivers" (Mourant & Rockwell, 1972). The analyses of the visual fixations revealed systematic relationships between the sources of information the drivers needed to drive safely and the spatial distributions of their visual fixations. The research demonstrated that fixations and saccadic eye movements provide important insights into drivers' visual search behavior, information needs, and information acquisition processes. In addition, the studies showed that as drivers gain skill and experience, their pattern of fixations changes in a systematic manner. Many driving-related studies have built on Rockwell's pioneering work. These studies used eye-tracking systems to describe cognitive aspects of skill acquisition, and the effects of fatigue and other impairments on the process of attention and information gathering. New research is focusing on the use of eye movements as triggers for in-vehicle alerting and control systems.
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