title: Gaze-eccentricity effects on road position and steering.
abstract: The effects of gaze eccentricity on the steering of an automobile were studied. Drivers performed an attention task while attempting to drive down the middle of a straight road in a simulation. Steering was biased in the direction of fixation, and deviation from the center of the road was proportional to the gaze direction until saturation at approximately 15 degrees gaze-angle from straight ahead. This effect remains when the position of the head was controlled and a reverse-steering task was used. Furthermore, the effect was not dependent on speed but reversed when the forward movement of the driver was removed from the simulation. Thus, small deviations in a driver's gaze can lead to significant impairments of the ability to drive a straight course.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany. wor1@cornell.edu
authors.forename: Wilson O
authors.initials: WO
authors.lastname: Readinger
authors.forename: Astros
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chatziastros
authors.forename: Douglas W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Cunningham
authors.forename: Heinrich H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Bülthoff
authors.forename: James E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Cutting
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011897:Random Allocation; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*