Hazard Perception Performance Research Articles

Effects of hazard type and confidence level on hazard perception in young male drivers: an ERP study.

Hazard perception refers to a driver's ability to identify potential hazards on the road. Although studies have shown that overconfidence affects drivers' ability to perceive hazards, the neural processing of hazard perception in overconfident drivers under different hazard types has rarely been investigated. A mixed experimental design of 2 (hazard type: hazards, no hazards) × 2 (driver group: overconfident driver, control group) was used. A total of 120 images (60 with hazards and 60 without hazards) were presented to 25 overconfident drivers and 25 drivers in the control group. Reaction time, response accuracy, P200 (200-250 ms), and N2 (280-330 ms) components were measured via event-related potential (ERP) technology. Response times of overconfident drivers are slower than those of the control group regardless of hazard types. The P200 latency of overconfident drivers was longer than that of their peers in hazard situations, while the P200 latency was similar between the two groups in no-hazard situations. Although a significant interaction was found on the N2 amplitude, no significant differences were found between the two groups in both hazard and no-hazard situations. Overconfident drivers have worse hazard perception performance in hazard situations with slower reaction times and greater P200 latencies than their peers. More importantly, P200 amplitude and N2 amplitude are sensitive to hazard types, while P200 amplitude and N2 latency can discriminate between driver groups. The findings help understand the negative impact of overconfidence on young drivers and contribute to the development and training of hazard perception tests.

Hazard perception performance and visual scanning behaviours: The effect of sleepiness

Driver sleepiness accounts for a substantial proportion of crashes in Australia and Worldwide. Young adults are overrepresented in sleep-related crashes and are more susceptible to sleepiness, resulting in impaired attention and driving performance. Visual scanning behaviour can affect the role between attention and information acquisition from the driver's environment. Thus, if attention is impaired, visual scanning behaviours are likely to show decrements as well. Overall, 32 young adults aged between 20 and 25 years completed a 60-minute hazard perception task to examine the effect of sleepiness and time-on-task on hazard perception performance, visual scanning behaviours, subjective sleepiness scores, and psychomotor vigilance test performance. The main outcomes include decrements in hazard perception performance and a restriction in horizontal and vertical eye scanning ranges across the 60-minute session, but with a more pronounced effect when sleep-restricted. These outcomes were consistent with increases in subjective sleepiness and behavioural metrics of sleepiness assessed via the PVT. Reductions in scanning range could limit opportunities to attend to hazards and other critical safety events. The current study outcomes provide an important contribution regarding the risks associated with sleepy driving performance.

Hazard Perception Performance and Visual Scanning Behaviours: The Effect of Sleepiness

Hazard Perception Performance and Visual Scanning Behaviours: The Effect of Sleepiness

Hazard Detection among Young and Experienced Drivers via Driving Simulator


 
 
 Hazard perception test (HPT) is one of a common task in perceiving hazard among drivers. Many countries have been adopting this method to assess an individual’s driving competency in order to acquire driving licenses. Computer-based assessment was a common method widely used to carry out the HPT. Previous hazard perception studies using Malaysian samples reported mixed findings on the effectivity of reaction time-based HPT. Dissimilar with the common method, this study employed a full-size cabin driving simulator to study hazard perception, focussing on hazards detection between two groups of drivers: young and experienced. Results from 28 (15 young, 13 experienced) drivers indicated that young drivers detected hazards faster than their experienced counterparts, even though both groups have the same performance of hazard recognition. Correlational analysis revealed that driving frequency may be a factor contributing to the difference in response time between these two groups. Further analysis also indicates that different road environments contribute to different hazard perception performance.
 
 

A novel driving assessment combining hazard perception, hazard prediction and theory questions

A new hazard test was created using high-fidelity computer animation containing ten hazards. Sixty learner drivers and sixty experienced drivers sat either a hazard-perception version of this test (requiring timed responses to materialized hazards) or a hazard-prediction variant of the test (where the screen is occluded as the hazard begins to appear and drivers are asked ‘What happens next?’). Recent studies have demonstrated that the prediction test format outperforms the hazard perception format using naturalistic video, but there has not yet been a study replicating this effect with computer-animated materials similar to the quality of those used in the official UK hazard perception test. The new test also included eleven theory questions designed to probe drivers’ knowledge of the rules of the road. The results demonstrated that both test variants differentiated between driver groups with considerable effect sizes. Theory-question scores were comparable across learner and experienced driver groups, reflecting learners’ preparation for the test and possible issues with memory decay and overwriting in the experienced group. As an interesting aside, driving-related video game play negatively correlated with hazard perception performance, but not with hazard prediction scores. Some individual hazards better suited the prediction or perception test format, raising the possibility of a future hybrid test that combines the two approaches.

Can young novice e-bike riders identify hazardous traffic situations? An exploratory study

IntroductionBetween 2013 and 2017, there has been a twenty-five-fold increase in the number of riders hospitalized as a result of an e-bike crash in Israel. Despite youngsters’ growing involvement in fatal and severe-injury e-bike crashes, their hazard-perception skills are yet to be methodically examined. We aimed to explore and map e-bike riders’ development of hazard-perception abilities in perceiving different types of hazard instigators. It was hypothesized that the ability to identify hazard instigators prior to their materialisation (i.e., unmaterialised hazards) develops with age and experience. MethodEighty-nine participants (inexperienced-youngsters, experienced-youngsters, inexperienced-adults and experienced-adults) took part in the experiment. Participants observed 10 short traffic-scenes clips taken from an e-bikes riders’ perspective and engaged in a hazard detection task. ResultsInexperienced-youngsters identified significantly less unmaterialised hazards than all the other groups; inexperienced-adults and experienced-youngsters identified approximately the same number of hazards; experienced-adults identified the most. Additionally, more verbal descriptions regarding unmaterialised hazards were suggested by experienced-adults than by all other groups. Findings suggest that with both age and experience, e-bikes riders’ hazard-perception performance tend to enhance. Moreover, participants' driving license status was found to play an important role in their performance. ConclusionsUnderstanding young, novice e-bike riders' shortcomings in evaluating traffic-situations contribute to the effort of producing intervention techniques that may increase their attentiveness towards unmaterialised hazards and lead towards reduction in their over-involvement in crashes. Implications for training, licensing and policy change recommendations are discussed.

Investigating the effects of irrational and rational self-statements on motor-skill and hazard-perception performance.

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is a psychotherapeutic approach based on the premise that when faced with adversity irrational beliefs determine unhealthy negative emotions and maladaptive behaviors, whereas rational beliefs lead to healthy and adaptive alternatives. The detrimental effects of irrational beliefs on psychological health are established, however less is known about the deleterious effects on human behavior and performance. In the present study we examined the effects of irrational and rational self-statements on motor-skill performance (Experiment 1), performance effectiveness, and efficiency during a modified hazard perception task, and task persistence during a breath-holding task (Experiment 2). Using a repeated measures counter balanced design, two cohorts of 35 undergraduate university students were recruited for Experiment 1 and 2, each participating in no self-statement, irrational, and rational self-statement conditions. Data indicated no differences in motor-skill and task performance, performance efficiency, task persistence, mental effort, and pre-performance anxiety between irrational and rational self-statement conditions. In contrast to previous research the findings provide insight into a juxtaposition that irrational beliefs hinder psychological health, yet may help performance, highlighting important distinctions in factual and practical rationality that have been overlooked within the extant literature. The findings have important practical implications for practitioners that may look to REBT to enhance the psychological health and performance for individuals who operate in high performance contexts. Further, the short and long-term effects of irrational and rational beliefs on performance and psychological health warrants greater investigation.

The effect of performance feedback on drivers’ hazard perception ability and self-ratings

Drivers’ hazard perception ability has been found to predict crash risk, and novice drivers appear to be particularly poor at this skill. This competency appears to develop only slowly with experience, and this could partially be a result of poor quality performance feedback. We report an experiment in which we provided high-quality artificial feedback on individual drivers’ performance in a validated video-based hazard perception test via either: (1) a graph-based comparison of hazard perception response times between the test-taker, the average driver, and an expert driver; (2) a video-based comparison between the same groups; or (3) both. All three types of feedback resulted in both an improvement in hazard perception performance and a reduction in self-rated hazard perception skill, compared with a no-feedback control group. Video-based and graph-based feedback combined resulted in a greater improvement in hazard perception performance than either of the individual components, which did not differ from one another. All three types of feedback eliminated participants’ self-enhancement bias for hazard perception skill. Participants judged both interventions involving video feedback to be significantly more likely to improve their real-world driving than the no feedback control group. While all three forms of feedback had some value, the combined video and graph feedback intervention appeared to be the most effective across all outcome measures.

Supplemental Material for Investigating the Effects of Irrational and Rational Self-Statements on Motor-Skill and Hazard-Perception Performance

Supplemental Material for Investigating the Effects of Irrational and Rational Self-Statements on Motor-Skill and Hazard-Perception Performance

Primary or secondary tasks? Dual-task interference between cyclist hazard perception and cadence control using cross-modal sensory aids with rider assistance bike computers

This research investigated the risks involved in bicycle riding while using various sensory modalities to deliver training information. To understand the risks associated with using bike computers, this study evaluated hazard perception performance through lab-based simulations of authentic riding conditions. Analysing hazard sensitivity (d') of signal detection theory, the rider's response time, and eye glances provided insights into the risks of using bike computers. In this study, 30 participants were tested with eight hazard perception tasks while they maintained a cadence of 60 ± 5 RPM and used bike computers with different sensory displays, namely visual, auditory, and tactile feedback signals. The results indicated that synchronously using different sense organs to receive cadence feedback significantly affects hazard perception performance; direct visual information leads to the worst rider distraction, with a mean sensitivity to hazards (d') of −1.03. For systems with multiple interacting sensory aids, auditory aids were found to result in the greatest reduction in sensitivity to hazards (d' mean = −0.57), whereas tactile sensory aids reduced the degree of rider distraction (d' mean = −0.23). Our work complements existing work in this domain by advancing the understanding of how to design devices that deliver information subtly, thereby preventing disruption of a rider's perception of road hazards.

Working Memory Capacity, Visual Attention and Hazard Perception in Driving

In two experiments we explored the influence of individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC) on hazard perception performance in a simulated driving task. In Experiment 1, we examined the relationship between WMC and hazard perception performance under control and dual task conditions, and self-reported driving behavior. Results revealed significant relationships between WMC, hazard perception performance and self-reported driving behavior. Participants lower in WMC performed poorer in dual task conditions and reported more instances of inattention when driving. In Experiment 2, we explored the gaze behavior of low and high WMC individuals whilst completing the hazard perception test under control and dual task conditions. Results revealed that low-WMC individuals had poorer hazard perception performance under dual task conditions and these performance decrements were mirrored in reductions in mean fixation durations on the hazard. Interestingly, pupillary dilation appears to discriminate between low- and high-WMC individuals and might be a useful index of attention for future research.

The Impact of Age Stereotypes on Older Adults’ Hazard Perception Performance and Driving Confidence

This study examined the effect of age-stereotype threat on older adults' performance on a task measuring hazard perception performance in driving. The impact of age-stereotype threat in relation to the value participants placed on driving and pre- and post-task confidence in driving ability was also investigated. Eighty-six adults aged from 65 years of age completed a questionnaire measuring demographic information, driving experience, self-rated health, driving importance, and driving confidence. Prior to undertaking a timed hazard perception task, participants were exposed to either negative or positive age stereotypes. Results showed that age-stereotype threats, while not influencing hazard perception performance, significantly reduced post-driving confidence compared with pre-driving confidence for those in the negative prime condition. This finding builds on the literature that has found that stereotype-based influences cannot simply be understood in terms of performance outcomes alone and may be relevant to factors affected by confidence such as driving cessation decisions.

Stereotype threat and hazard perception among provisional license drivers

Stereotype threat refers to the negative impact a stereotype about one's group can have on one's performance in domains relevant to the stereotype. In the current paper, we explore whether the negative stereotype of provisional license drivers (PLDs) might produce stereotype threat in a driving-related hazard perception task. We manipulate threat by asking participants to self-identify as PLDs in a categorization condition, or by reminding PLD participants explicitly of the stereotype of PLDs in an explicit stereotype condition. Results reveal increments in hazard perception in the categorization condition, and decrements in hazard perception in the explicit stereotype condition. Mediation analysis reveals that hazard perception performance is fully mediated by increased effort in the categorization condition and by decreased effort in the explicit stereotype condition. We discuss these findings in terms of their implications for stereotype threat and its mediators, and for public policy that explicitly discriminates between PLDs and other driver groups.

Does preoccupation impair hazard perception? A simultaneous EEG and Eye Tracking study

The aim of this current study was to test the hypothesis that contemplating a recent mobile telephone conversation has a detrimental effect on measures of attentional processing in a driving situation. In this within-subjects design, hazard perception performance was compared between high and no cognitive load conditions (with or without a puzzle to solve). We tested 17 participants, all of whom were required to be in possession of a DVLA approved driving license and had completed the hazard perception portion of the British driving test. A novel dual-task paradigm, which did not require subjects to process or produce verbal information during the primary task, was employed to increase participants’ cognitive load. Participants were assessed on three categories of performance measures: behavioural, eye movements and cortical activity between both high and no cognitive load conditions whilst watching 20 clips from a hazard perception test. This study was run in a laboratory of the Psychology Research Wing at the University of Dundee. Behavioural findings from the hazard perception test indicate significantly increased reaction times to hazardous stimuli and significantly increased false alarm rates to non-hazardous stimuli in the high cognitive load condition (when contemplating a previous conversation). Analyses of eye movements indicated significant increases in blink frequencies, higher saccade peak velocities and a significant reduction in the spread of fixations along the horizontal axis. Results from EEG recordings showed a significant increase in frontal and a significant decrease in occipital theta activity within the high load condition. Findings were interpreted within the framework of Corbetta, Patel and Schulmann’s (2008) networks model of attention control. Our findings suggest that preoccupation with a recent conversation negatively influences the modulatory effect of the central executive on both the stimulus as well as goal-driven networks of the brain.

The Effects of Texting and Driving on Hazard Perception

Hazard perception has received little attention compared to measures of vehicle control in studies exploring the effects of texting on driving performance, despite being a more direct measure of crash risk. Furthermore, the driver strategies attempting to moderate such distraction are not well understood. The current study attempts to address these two facets of texting while driving. Participants (10 male; 10 female) drove a low fidelity simulator that measures situational awareness, while text messaging in order to assess hazard perception performance. Participants were required to identify and appropriately respond to events that would result in a collision. Two text message conditions (i.e., copying and alphabetizing a 5-letter string) were used to compare low vs. high cognitive load, respectively. Participants missed more hazards in the alphabetize-text compared to the copy-text and driving only conditions. Signal Detection Theory (SDT) analyses revealed the adoption of a more liberal response bias (B”) (i.e., participants increased false) when required to copy the text message but not when required to alphabetize. Last, participants were slower to react to hazards in the alphabetize-text condition compared to the copy-text and driving only conditions. These findings suggest that the impact of text messaging on the detection of driving hazards depends in part, on the cognitive load imposed by the text messaging task and the adoption of strategies to compensate for the interference on the driving task.

How realistic are older drivers’ ratings of their driving ability?

One strategy that can be used by older drivers to guard against age-related declines in driving capability is to regulate their driving. This strategy presumes that self-judgments of driving capability are realistic. We found no significant relationships between older drivers’ hazard perception skill ratings and performance on an objective and validated video-based hazard perception test, even when self-ratings of performance on specific scenarios in the test were used. Self-enhancement biases were found across all components of driving skill, including hazard perception. If older drivers’ judgments of their driving capability are unrealistic, then this may compromise the effectiveness of any self-restriction strategies to reduce crash risk.

Hazard perception of motorcyclists and car drivers

The current study compares hazard perception (HP) performance of 50 male drivers with and without a motorcycle license in order to generalize results. A video-based HP test, measuring reaction times to traffic scenes, was administered to these two groups of drivers. Participants with a motorcycle license performed better than participants without a motorcycle license. ANOVA indicated that learning improved linearly for participants with a motorcycle license but not for participants without a motorcycle license. No evidence that HP was predicted by age was found. HP scores for drivers who reported previous involvement in an accident were lower than for those who reported not being involved in an accident. The results are discussed in the context of sensitivity and response bias models.

Risk perception in novice drivers: the relationship between questionnaire measures and response latency

The extent to which questionnaire based measures of driving risk, driving ability and accident likelihood are associated with response latency based measures obtained on a hazard perception test was examined. In Experiment 1 questionnaire evaluations of driving in general were obtained and correlated with hazard perception performance. In Experiment 2 questionnaire evaluations and hazard perception performance were obtained when drivers viewed the same driving scenes. In neither experiment did questionnaire responses correlate significantly with hazard perception performance. Additionally while in both experiments no difference in hazard perception performance arose between males and females, females rated driving as more risky and their ability to be lower than males. The results indicate independence between questionnaire and response latency measures of hazard perception. However the possibility that both approaches should be adopted within a single framework is raised.