This paper reports a study to examine the use of visual search in driving, and the role of driving experience in correctly identifying necessary objects in sight. Visual search concentrates on a point near to the focus of expansion. More eye movements are made in a more complex scene. Visual processing employs bottom-up and top-down effects. A previous study used scenes divided into six jumbled sections but this study altered the concept to produce nine sections as the focus point was on a mid-line in the six-section version. Participants watched coherent and jumbled scenes and were asked to identify whether or not an object such as a road sign or traffic light was present in the scene being shown. Coherence provided a smaller reduction in reaction times, and part jumbled scenes induced faster reactions than fully jumbled ones. Driving experience seemed to affect accuracy positively but experienced drivers had longer reaction times. For the covering abstract see ITRD E116025.
Abstract