Eye Movement Patterns and Driving Performance

Abstract

Summary: In the current study we examined the relationship between drivers' eye movement patterns and driving performance in a dual-task driving paradigm. Drivers performed two tasks in a driving simulator. In a car following task, drivers were asked to maintain a constant headway from a leading vehicle as it varied its speed. In the second task (light detection task), drivers tried to detect changes in peripheral traffic lights. The performance in the car following task was measured with headway distance and RMS, and the performance in the light detection task was measured with response time and accuracy. We found that the frequency of fixations, fixation duration and spatial distribution of fixations were significantly correlated with drivers' performance in the driving tasks. Specifically, driving performance improved with fewer eye movements, longer fixation durations and smaller spatial distribution of fixations.

Eye movements during path integration

“…A similar behavior as in our experiment was observed at least in a part of subjects during a headway reproduction task in a more naturalistic environment using a driving simulator (Bian et al. ). Here, too, as in our study, the task did not involve any heading judgments or requirements for orientation.…”

“…Under natural conditions, factors such as the curvature of a selfmotion trajectory also contribute to the variability of chosen eye positions (Land and Lee 1994;Wilson et al 2008). A similar behavior as in our experiment was observed at least in a part of subjects during a headway reproduction task in a more naturalistic environment using a driving simulator (Bian et al 2011). Here, too, as in our study, the task did not involve any heading judgments or requirements for orientation.…”

Electrophysiological Measure of Impaired Information Processing in Drivers with Hematological Malignancy

“…Visual attention is commonly measured using eye-tracking methods and visual psychophysics to understand its role in driving performance ( 29 – 35 ). Saccadic behaviors, including fixation frequency, duration, and variability, are recorded to estimate the locus and control of overt visual attention.…”

“…More experienced drivers show shorter fixation durations ( 31 ) and greater fixation variability ( 30 ) than novice drivers while viewing complex traffic scenes. Saccadic behaviors also depend on concurrent cognitive load ( 29 , 31 , 33 – 35 ). Drivers show lower fixation frequency, longer fixation durations, and lower fixation variability when viewing dangerous scenes ( 31 ) or completing a secondary attention task ( 29 ).…”

“…Saccadic behaviors also depend on concurrent cognitive load ( 29 , 31 , 33 – 35 ). Drivers show lower fixation frequency, longer fixation durations, and lower fixation variability when viewing dangerous scenes ( 31 ) or completing a secondary attention task ( 29 ). Together, these studies suggest inexperience and cognitive load are associated with similar changes to overt attention while driving.…”