During self-motion, the driver's visual anticipation of the trajectory of another moving vehicle relies both on the global optical flow motion resulting from his/her self-motion and on local visual cues, such as the vehicle's optical trajectory and the relative optical motion between the vehicle and fixed elements in the environment. Here, we hypothesised that the complexity of the environment and the drivers' perceptual style influenced the use of such predictive visual information. Graphics displays simulated a driver's curvilinear movement towards an intersection where another vehicle was arriving. Subjects had to decide whether this vehicle would reach the intersection before or after them. Response times and differential thresholds were analysed. Overall, subjects' judgements were more accurate with realistic environments and with a road-sign near the intersection. Moreover, field-independent subjects were better than field-dependent subjects with realistic scenes, suggesting that they are better at picking up dynamic relevant information in a complex environment.
Abstract