Visual attention and cognitive process in construction hazard recognition: Study of fixation-related potential

Abstract

Previous studies on hazard recognition focused on single-mode neuropsychological responses using eye tracking or neuroimaging techniques, reflecting a limited understanding of the interaction between ocular and brain activities. This study explores the construction workers' meta-cognitive processes underpinning first target fixations using co-registration of eye movement (EM) and electroencephalography (EEG). The authors conducted a hazard recognition experiment to collect EM and EEG signals under free viewing conditions and examined the relationship between visual attention and cognitive processing. The results show that the workers allocated cognitive resources first to processing targets' visual features and then to discriminating safe or hazardous characteristics. Visual perception and conscious discrimination within first fixations are related to the prior detection of surroundings and affect the subsequent refixations. This study promotes evaluating the hazard recognition process in view of synchronous visual search and brain activity and advances the workers' hazard search patterns.