title: Limits of spatial attention in three-dimensional space and dual-task driving performance.
abstract: The present study examined the limits of spatial attention while performing two driving relevant tasks that varied in depth. The first task was to maintain a fixed headway distance behind a lead vehicle that varied speed. The second task was to detect a light-change target in an array of lights located above the roadway. In Experiment 1 the light detection task required drivers to encode color and location. The results indicated that reaction time to detect a light-change target increased and accuracy decreased as a function of the horizontal location of the light-change target and as a function of the distance from the driver. In a second experiment the light change task was changed to a singleton search (detect the onset of a yellow light) and the workload of the car following task was systematically varied. The results of Experiment 2 indicated that RT increased as a function of task workload, the 2D position of the light-change target and the distance of the light-change target. A multiple regression analysis indicated that the effect of distance on light detection performance was not due to changes in the projected size of the light target. In Experiment 3 we found that the distance effect in detecting a light change could not be explained by the location of eye fixations. The results demonstrate that when drivers attend to a roadway scene attention is limited in three-dimensional space. These results have important implications for developing tests for assessing crash risk among drivers as well as the design of in vehicle technologies such as head-up displays.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, United States. andersen@ucr.edu
authors.forename: George J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Andersen
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Bian
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kang
mesh_terms: D000054:Acceleration; D001288:Attention; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000523:psychology*; D003118:Color Perception; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003867:Depth Perception; D004215:Distance Perception; D004779:Environment Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D011930:Reaction Time; D013028:Space Perception; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D055815:Young Adult