A psychophysiological and driving performance evaluation of focal and ambient visual processing demands in simulated driving

Abstract

Research has focused little on the ambient and focal visual channels within which driving and side-task information can be processed. In the current experiment, for the purpose of demonstrating differentiation of focal and ambient visual processing attentional demands on driving performance and physiological response, subjects participated in a dual-task driving simulation that contained focal and ambient components. We hypothesized that ambient demands would not have any effects on driving performance or physiological response, whereas the focal-side-task would cause a deterioration in driving performance and specific changes in physiological response. Support for these hypotheses would provide evidence that focal visual processing is attention demanding, whereas the processing of ambient visual information is not.Some results suggest that ambient visual information was processed pre-attentively, whereas focal visual information requires attentional resources to be processed. Driving performance deteriorated and changes in physiological response occurred when the focal side-task was added to driving, but not when the ambient side-task was added. However, we failed to see predicted changes in driving performance and physiological response as the demands of the focal and ambient components of the driving simulation varied. The results of the current study suggest that a differentiation in attention demands between focal and ambient vision does exist, but that further research is needed to better understand the nature and practical consequences of the differentiation.