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Change detection in urban and rural driving scenes: Effects of target type and safety relevance on change blindness

The ability to detect changes is crucial for safe driving. Previous research has demonstrated that drivers often experience change blindness, which refers to failed or delayed change detection. The current study explored how susceptibility to change blindness varies as a function of the driving envi...

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Main Authors: Vanessa Beanland, Ashleigh Filtness, Rhiannon Jeans
Format: Default Article
Published: 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2134/24141
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author Vanessa Beanland
Ashleigh Filtness
Rhiannon Jeans
author_facet Vanessa Beanland
Ashleigh Filtness
Rhiannon Jeans
author_sort Vanessa Beanland (810203)
collection Figshare
description The ability to detect changes is crucial for safe driving. Previous research has demonstrated that drivers often experience change blindness, which refers to failed or delayed change detection. The current study explored how susceptibility to change blindness varies as a function of the driving environment, type of object changed, and safety relevance of the change. Twenty-six fully-licenced drivers completed a driving-related change detection task. Changes occurred to seven target objects (road signs, cars, motorcycles, traffic lights, pedestrians, animals, or roadside trees) across two environments (urban or rural). The contextual safety relevance of the change was systematically manipulated within each object category, ranging from high safety relevance (i.e., requiring a response by the driver) to low safety relevance (i.e., requiring no response). When viewing rural scenes, compared with urban scenes, participants were significantly faster and more accurate at detecting changes, and were less susceptible to “looked-but-failed-to-see” errors. Interestingly, safety relevance of the change differentially affected performance in urban and rural environments. In urban scenes, participants were more efficient at detecting changes with higher safety relevance, whereas in rural scenes the effect of safety relevance has marginal to no effect on change detection. Finally, even after accounting for safety relevance, change blindness varied significantly between target types. Overall the results suggest that drivers are less susceptible to change blindness for objects that are likely to change or move (e.g., traffic lights vs. road signs), and for moving objects that pose greater danger (e.g., wild animals vs. pedestrians).
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institution Loughborough University
publishDate 2017
record_format Figshare
spelling rr-article-93498022017-01-26T00:00:00Z Change detection in urban and rural driving scenes: Effects of target type and safety relevance on change blindness Vanessa Beanland (810203) Ashleigh Filtness (1384968) Rhiannon Jeans (7153790) Design not elsewhere classified Driving Change detection Visual attention Change blindness Design Practice and Management not elsewhere classified The ability to detect changes is crucial for safe driving. Previous research has demonstrated that drivers often experience change blindness, which refers to failed or delayed change detection. The current study explored how susceptibility to change blindness varies as a function of the driving environment, type of object changed, and safety relevance of the change. Twenty-six fully-licenced drivers completed a driving-related change detection task. Changes occurred to seven target objects (road signs, cars, motorcycles, traffic lights, pedestrians, animals, or roadside trees) across two environments (urban or rural). The contextual safety relevance of the change was systematically manipulated within each object category, ranging from high safety relevance (i.e., requiring a response by the driver) to low safety relevance (i.e., requiring no response). When viewing rural scenes, compared with urban scenes, participants were significantly faster and more accurate at detecting changes, and were less susceptible to “looked-but-failed-to-see” errors. Interestingly, safety relevance of the change differentially affected performance in urban and rural environments. In urban scenes, participants were more efficient at detecting changes with higher safety relevance, whereas in rural scenes the effect of safety relevance has marginal to no effect on change detection. Finally, even after accounting for safety relevance, change blindness varied significantly between target types. Overall the results suggest that drivers are less susceptible to change blindness for objects that are likely to change or move (e.g., traffic lights vs. road signs), and for moving objects that pose greater danger (e.g., wild animals vs. pedestrians). 2017-01-26T00:00:00Z Text Journal contribution 2134/24141 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Change_detection_in_urban_and_rural_driving_scenes_Effects_of_target_type_and_safety_relevance_on_change_blindness/9349802 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
spellingShingle Design not elsewhere classified
Driving
Change detection
Visual attention
Change blindness
Design Practice and Management not elsewhere classified
Vanessa Beanland
Ashleigh Filtness
Rhiannon Jeans
Change detection in urban and rural driving scenes: Effects of target type and safety relevance on change blindness
title Change detection in urban and rural driving scenes: Effects of target type and safety relevance on change blindness
title_full Change detection in urban and rural driving scenes: Effects of target type and safety relevance on change blindness
title_fullStr Change detection in urban and rural driving scenes: Effects of target type and safety relevance on change blindness
title_full_unstemmed Change detection in urban and rural driving scenes: Effects of target type and safety relevance on change blindness
title_short Change detection in urban and rural driving scenes: Effects of target type and safety relevance on change blindness
title_sort change detection in urban and rural driving scenes: effects of target type and safety relevance on change blindness
topic Design not elsewhere classified
Driving
Change detection
Visual attention
Change blindness
Design Practice and Management not elsewhere classified
url https://hdl.handle.net/2134/24141