What happens when drivers face hazards on the road?

Abstract

The current study aims to obtain knowledge about the nature of the processes involved in Hazard Perception, using measurement techniques to separate and independently quantify these suspected subprocesses: Sensation, Situation Awareness (recognition, location and projection) and Decision-Making. It applies Signal Detection Theory analysis to Hazard Perception and Prediction Tasks. To enable the calculation of Signal Detection Theory parameters, video-recorded hazardous vs. quasi-hazardous situations were presented to the participants. In the hazardous situations it is necessary to perform an evasive action, for instance, braking or swerving abruptly, while the quasi-hazardous situations do not require the driver to make any evasive manoeuvre, merely to carry on driving at the same speed and following the same trajectory. A first Multiple Choice Hazard Perception and Prediction test was created to measure participants' performance in a What Happens Next? Task. The sample comprised 143 participants, 47 females and 94 males. Groups of non-offender drivers (learner, novice and experienced) and offender drivers (novice and experienced) were recruited. The Multiple Choice Hazard Perception and Prediction test succeeded in finding differences between drivers according to their driving experience.In fact, differences exist with regard to the level of hazard discrimination (d' prime) by drivers with different experience (learner, novice and experienced drivers) and profile (offenders and non-offenders) and these differences emerge from Signal Detection Theory analysis. In addition, it was found that experienced drivers show higher Situation Awareness than learner or novice drivers. On the other hand, although offenders do worse than non-offenders on the hazard identification question, they do just as well when their Situation Awareness is probed (in fact, they are as aware as non-offenders of what the obstacles on the road are, where they are and what will happen next). Nevertheless, when considering the answers participants provided about their degree of cautiousness, experienced drivers were more cautious than novice drivers, and non-offender drivers were more cautious than offender drivers. That is, a greater number of experienced and non-offender drivers chose the answer "I would make an evasive manoeuvre such as braking gradually".2

An investigation of detection biases in the unattended periphery during simulated driving

“…Many people are optimistic and tend to expect things to be positive (Sharot, 2011, Sharot, Guitart-Masip, Korn, Chowdhury, & Dolan, 2012, Sharot, Riccardi, Raio, & Phelps, 2007, so they may tend to mistakenly detect hazards that present in unattended periphery as no danger, while what is actually happening is they just don't see the hazards. Similar results have been found in previous studies where drivers showed conservative criteria in hazard detection regardless of driving experience (Ventsislavova et al, 2016;Wallis & Horswill, 2007). Hazard detection is a special detection task, because the penalty for a miss and a false alarm is different: a miss may cause a crash, while a false alarm may only lead to unnecessary brakes; thus, the criterion in hazard detection task is closely related with driving safety.…”

An Investigation of Detection Biases in the Unattended Periphery During Simulated Driving

“…Many people are optimistic and tend to expect things to be positive (Sharot, 2011;Sharot, Guitart-Masip, Korn, Chowdhury, & Dolan, 2012;Sharot, Riccardi, Raio, & Phelps, 2007), so they may tend to mistakenly detect hazards that present in unattended periphery as no danger, while what is actually happening is they just don't see the hazards. Similar results have been found in previous studies where drivers showed conservative criteria in hazard detection regardless of driving experience (Ventsislavova et al, 2016;Wallis & Horswill, 2007). Hazard detection is a special detection task, because the penalty for a miss and a false alarm is different: a miss may cause a crash, while a false alarm may only lead to unnecessary brakes; thus, the criterion in hazard detection task is closely related with driving safety.…”

Are situation awareness and decision-making in driving totally conscious processes? Results of a hazard prediction task

“…in a hazardous situation was found to depend on the driver's experience. This extends beyond research that has previously compared novice and experienced drivers (Crundall, 2016, Jackson et al, 2009Lim, Sheppard and Crundall, 2014) and demonstrates that this skill develops across a wider spectrum of experience than we may have first thought, from learner, through to highly experienced (see also Castro et al, 2014;Ventsislavova et al, 2016). As this predictive skill underlies the whole hazard avoidance process (Pradhan and Crundall, 2017), and is therefore crucial to safe driving (Horswill and McKenna, 2004), it follows that authorities should make efforts to improve hazard prediction in novice and learner drivers.…”