Drivers and road signs.
TL;DR: The main conclusion must be that the road sign system to a high degree does not achieve its purpose.
Abstract: The function of the road sign system as an information channel for car drivers was investigated. The data were gathered from more than 5,000 car drivers stopped after passing a road sign on a Swedish highway. The main results are as follows. 1. The overall probability of a road sign being noticed on passing is not higher than about 0·5. 2. The different signs studied form a scale of recording probability of perception extending from a low group with a probability of being perceived of about 0·25 up to a group with probabilities between 0·60-0·75. The rank order of the signs is consistent between occasions. 3. The results verified the outcome of a previous investigation by Johansson and Rumar, 1966. The main conclusion must be that the road sign system to a high degree does not achieve its purpose.
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TL;DR: The data suggest that the impairment of driving performance produced by cell phone conversations is mediated, at least in part, by reduced attention to visual inputs.
Abstract: This research examined the effects of hands-free cell phone conversations on simulated driving. The authors found that these conversations impaired driver’s reactions to vehicles braking in front of them. The authors assessed whether this impairment could be attributed to a withdrawal of attention from the visual scene, yielding a form of inattention blindness. Cell phone conversations impaired explicit recognition memory for roadside billboards. Eye-tracking data indicated that this was due to reduced attention to foveal information. This interpretation was bolstered by data showing that cell phone conversations impaired implicit perceptual memory for items presented at fixation. The data suggest that the impairment of driving performance produced by cell phone conversations is mediated, at least in part, by reduced attention to visual inputs.
1,040 citations
Cites background from "Drivers and road signs."
...The advantage of this procedure is that it has been well established that attention is necessary for long-lasting explicit memories (e.g., Mack & Rock, 1998; see also Johansson & Rumar, 1966, for a related procedure for assessing how drivers attend to road signs)....
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...The advantage of this procedure is that it has been well established that attention is necessary for long-lasting explicit memories (e.g., Mack & Rock, 1998; see also Johansson & Rumar, 1966, for a related procedure for assessing how drivers attend to road signs)....
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TL;DR: It is concluded that the hierarchical control structure and theories of automaticity and errors provide the potential tools for defining alternative criterion measures, such as safety margins, and developing testable theories of driving behavior and crash causation.
518 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined whether stress recovery and/or immunization varies as a function of the roadside environment and found that participants who viewed nature-dominated drives would experience quicker recovery from stress and greater immunization to subsequent stress.
477 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a new model for the motivational factors in decision-making processes undergone by drivers is introduced, which emphasizes the competition between the driver's desire to perform a certain act, induced by (excitatory) motives, in a certain traffic situation and the subjective risk associated with this desire.
291 citations
TL;DR: The basic road user error of failing to see another road user in time, why such errors happen, and how they can be reduced are discussed.
Abstract: Over the past two or three decades we have been quite successful in reducing injuries of car occupants by the use of energy-absorbing techniques; but we have not been as successful in reducing the risks of having collisions. When drivers are asked why an accident occurred very often they claim that they saw the other road user too late to avoid collision. This paper discusses the basic road user error of failing to see another road user in time, why such errors happen, and how they can be reduced. A detection error is basic, because without detection no processing of information, no decision process including that road user, takes place. Among the many causes of detection error two of the more important are: •a lapse of cognitive expectation, illustrated by the failure to scan for a particular class of road user, or to look in the appropriate direction; •a difficulty with perceptual thresholds, illustrated by the failure to discern the relevant stimuli in lower levels of ambient illumination or in situati...
271 citations
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TL;DR: It was found that the mean percentage of road signs recorded by five subjects over the course of a 105 miles long car journey under optimal conditions was of the order of 90 per cent of signs passed.
Abstract: It was found that the mean percentage of road signs recorded by five subjects over the course of a 105 miles long car journey under optimal conditions was of the order of 90 per cent of signs passed. It was found that the mean percentage of drivers recording a road sign was 47 per cent of those passed it. (This figure is based on percentages obtained for five different road signs, the number of drivers involved being about 1000.). On analysing the data for these five signs, it was found that there was a significant difference between the percentage of drivers recording each one. This difference was postulated as being due to the degree of urgency of the information contained in each sign (as based on past experience), i.e. the more urgent the information, the higher the percentage of drivers recording the sign.
103 citations