Peripheral vision and aetiology of child pedestrian accidents.

Three experiments examined whether age and sex differences in pedestrian accidents might be partly attributable to differences in the visual perception of peripheral stimuli. Primary schoolchildren and adults responded individually to the presentation of lights and retinal eccentricities of 2 degrees, 20 degrees and 40 degrees. There were no age or sex differences in expectations. As expected, adults and 11 year- olds detections were faster than 8 and 6 years- old.