Effects of a driver assistance system with foresighted deceleration control on the driving performance of elderly and younger drivers

It is imperative to enhance the safety of elderly individuals on the roads to ensure the quality of their daily life. Near-miss incidents or accidents at blind intersections often result from a conflict between the behaviors of the driver and of other road users (pedestrians and cyclists). The failure to search for potential conflict in the context of blind intersections is a concern pertaining to road safety. The proposed assistance system performs a proactive braking intervention to achieve a referenced velocity in uncertain situations, such as one in which an unobserved pedestrian might initiate a road crossing. The proactive braking intervention attempts to manage the potential risk of crashing with respect to covert hazards. Because an automated system may impair a human’s ability to perceive and respond to hazardous situations while driving, this study was designed to examine the effects of proactive braking intervention and visual support cues on elderly and younger drivers’ ability to respond to information about potentially hazardous situations. We conducted a public-road driving experiment involving 108 elderly and younger drivers from two non-overlapping age groups. It was observed that the vehicle slowdown realized through the proactive braking intervention enabled the drivers to perform safety confirmation near blind spots and caused them to be more sensitive to and wary of potential hazards. This approach could be effective not only for elderly drivers, but also for young or inexperienced ones.     

安全标志词语的风险等级对注意效应的调节作用

安全标志是一种传递潜在风险的方式,在安全管理中有重要地位。安全标志词语在安全标志中应用广泛。本文从新的视角研究安全标志词语的有效性,应用心理学中的线索-靶范式研究安全标志词语的风险等级对目标的注意效应的影响。实验结果发现,词语的风险等级显著调节注意返回抑制（inhibition of return, IOR）效应, 高风险词语相对于中、低风险词语能够减弱IOR效应;但词语的风险等级对IOR的调节作用受到靶子位置的影响,其中,靶子出现在左侧时调节作用显著,而靶子出现在右侧时调节作用不显著,这是由于风险引发的负性情绪刺激处理的偏侧优势产生的。本文为安全标志有效性相关研究提供了新的研究视角和心理学实验证据。     

The impact of Primacy/Recency Effects and Hazard Monitoring on attributions of other drivers

The present study examined the impact of Primacy/Recency Effects and Hazard Monitoring on driver attributions. Participants viewed a simulated near collision from the perspective of a trailing motorist. The amount of error free driving prior to the near collision varied between two groups, where the near incident occurred either early or later in their viewing experience. They were then given the opportunity to provide judgments of the offending driver based on how safe, dangerous, risky, and skilled the driver was in general, and to evaluate their overall performance. Results showed a Primacy Effect dominance in that judgments of the driver were most negative in the early group, but this was moderated by high Hazard Monitoring for ratings of “dangerous” and “safe”. This suggests that judgments of other drivers are likely to be quick and based on early information, but are impacted by personal factors such as a tendency to monitor for hazards.     

An approach to novice driver training

IntroductionBased upon neuroscience findings relevant to emerging adults, this paper considers 12 cognitive and behavioural features of young drivers’ performance and possible ameliorative strategies to address them.Literature findingsEvidence is explored on the extent to which each has been identified and evaluated in respect of young driver training and education in driving performance. The paper considers the extent to which each of these contributions to young driver safety is feasible and has been adopted, identifying those for which further development and implementation is required.DiscussionBased upon neuroscience findings as well as the evidence summarised in this paper, it concludes with an outline of an –“ideal”– training program for young novice drivers.     

Evoked culture, ritualization and religious rituals

This study presents an attempt to integrate two theories about ritual: the theory that McCauley and Lawson developed in Bringing Ritual to Mind; Psychological Foundations of Cultural Forms and the theory that Boyer and Liénard presented in a target article in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, ‘Why ritualized behavior in humans? Precaution systems and action-parsing in developmental, pathological and cultural rituals’ and in another article published in the American Anthropologist, ‘Whence collective rituals? A cultural selection model of ritualized behavior’.     

Using physiological and behavioral measurements in a picture-based road hazard perception experiment to classify risky and safe drivers

Every year, a considerable number of people got injured or even lost their lives in road traffic accidents. To decrease the number of fatalities and injuries, researchers are seeking methods to identify and restrain drivers before the happening of actual traffic accidents, who possess dangerous driving behaviors and may cause road traffic accidents. Such methods are usually exploited to decide drivers’ fitness to drive—an indicator to describe whether they are fit for driving. The aim of this study is to measure drivers’ physiological and behavioral responses to road hazards and to extract features from measurements for further classification of risky and safe drivers. 42 drivers participated in a picture-based road hazard perception experiment, where electroencephalography (EEG), electrodermal activity (EDA), behavioral responses to road hazards, multidimensional driving style inventory (MDSI) questionnaire, and demographic information were recorded. Results indicated that 5 specific physiological features regarding to road hazard perception showed significant differences between risky and safe drivers. Subsequently, participants were classified into risky or safe drivers group by applying only the 5 features. 81.82% and 77.78% accuracy of classification were attained for risky and safe drivers, respectively. It was evidenced that using physiological and behavioral responses to evaluate drivers’ road hazard perception might be utilized as a tool to measure drivers’ fitness to drive. For further studies, improvements to future experiment design were discussed.     

Detecting drivers’ cognitive load from saccadic intrusion

In this paper, we have explored use of Saccadic Intrusion to detect drivers’ cognitive load and instantaneous perception of developing road hazards. Saccadic Intrusion is a type of eye gaze movement which was earlier found to be related to change in cognitive load. We have developed an algorithm to detect saccadic intrusion from a commercially available low-cost eye gaze tracker and conducted four user studies involving a driving simulator and cognitive and hazard perception tests. Our results show that average velocities of saccadic intrusion increases with increase in cognitive load and recording saccadic intrusion and eye blinks for 6 s duration can predict drivers’ instantaneous perception of developing road hazards.     

Evaluating bicyclists’ risk perception using video clips: Comparison of frequent and infrequent city cyclists

Hazard and risk perception has been studied extensively among car drivers, and their link to crash involvement is established. Bicyclists, in particular, are vulnerable road users. Better understanding of their risk and hazard perception could help to improve their traffic safety.In this study, we investigated the risk perception of bicyclists in a city environment. Two groups of bicyclists were compared: 19 frequent and 19 infrequent bicyclists. Participants were shown video clips taken with a camera attached to the handlebar of a bicycle, and they were asked to continuously indicate with a slider how much caution the situation needed.The frequent cyclists had more frequent rises in the caution estimate, which suggest that they anticipated or detected more hazards than infrequent cyclists. This is in line with the classical hazard perception results, which link the car driving experience to faster and more accurate hazard perception. The overall level or caution was not directly related to the rise event rate or bicycling frequency. Those cyclists who reported typically cycling faster than others showed elevated overall level of caution on sidewalks compared with others, but there was no difference on bike paths.     

A hazard-perception test for cycling children: An exploratory study

In car driving, hazard perception tests have revealed important differences in perceptual-cognitive skills between novice and experienced drivers. Although these insights have led to new educational programs for learner drivers, similar research has not yet been done for other road users such as bicyclists. In the current investigation, a first hazard perception test for bicyclists has been developed and tested on both adults and children of ±eight year old. The test consisted of three sections in which visual behaviour, environmental awareness, and risk perception were evaluated respectively. Although only few differences in visual behaviour and environmental awareness were found, adults were found to react earlier on hazards than children. These results suggest that children have difficulties to interpret the necessary information to react timely to hazardous traffic situations. Alternatively, the current set-up of the hazard perception test might not have been suitable to detect differences in visual behaviour between children and adults in traffic situations. Therefore the development and use of future hazard perception tests for bicyclists is discussed.     

Hazard perception abilities of experienced and novice motorcyclists: An interactive simulator experiment

This study reports an experiment that compared the hazard perception abilities of experienced and novice motorcycle riders using an interactive, closed-loop, simulator. Participants (n = 49) were categorized into four groups: experienced motorcycle riders with full driver licence, inexperienced motorcycle riders with full driver licence, novice motorcycle riders with full driver licence, and novice motorcycle riders with probationary driver licence. The participants were tested on three scenarios, each consisting of eight hazardous events. They were instructed to ride normally, but to respond appropriately to avoid the hazards. Under certain conditions in the simulator, we found that experienced riders (relative to inexperienced or novice riders) crashed less often, received better performance evaluations, and approached hazards at more appropriate speeds. Interestingly, we also found that some novice riders were overconfident in their riding ability. We discuss how this overconfidence might be related to hazard perception.