Hancock P A, de Ridder S N
Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA.
Ergonomics. 2003 Oct 10;46(12):1111-35. doi: 10.1080/0014013031000136386.
Road traffic accidents are the single greatest cause of fatality in the workplace and the primary cause of all accidental death in the US to the age of 78. However, behavioural analysis of response in the final seconds and milliseconds before collision has been a most difficult proposition since the quantitative recording of such events has largely been beyond cost feasibility for road transportation. Here, a new and innovative research strategy is reported that permits just such a form of investigation to be conducted in a safe and effective manner. Specifically, a linked simulation environment has been constructed in which drivers are physically located in two adjacent, full-vehicle simulators acting within a shared single virtual driving world. As reported here for the first time, this innovative technology creates situations that provide avoidance responses paralleling those observed in real-world conditions. Within this shared virtual world 46 participants (25 female, 21 male) were tested who met in two ambiguous traffic situations: an intersection and a hill scenario. At the intersection the two drivers approached each other at an angle of 135 degrees and buildings placed at the intersection blocked the view of both drivers from early detection of the opposing vehicle. The second condition represented a 'wrong' way conflict. Each driver proceeded along a three-lane highway from opposite directions. A hill impeded the oncoming view of each driver who only saw the conflicting vehicle briefly as it crested the brow of the hill. Driver avoidance responses of steering wheel, brake, and accelerator activation were recorded to the nearest millisecond. Qualitative results were obtained through a post-experience questionnaire in which participants were asked about their driving habits, simulator experience and their particular response to the experimental events which they had encountered. The results indicated that: (1) situations have been created which provided avoidance responses as they have been recorded in real-world circumstances, (2) the recorded avoidance responses depended directly upon viewing times, and (3) the very short viewing times in this experiment resulted in a single avoidance action, largely represented by a random choice of swerve to either right or left. The present results lead us to posit that in order to be able to design accident avoidance mechanism that respond appropriately in the diverse situations encountered, there is a need to pay particular attention to mutual viewing times for drivers. The general implications for a behavioural science of collision-avoidance are evaluated in light of the present findings.
道路交通事故是工作场所死亡的最大单一原因，也是美国78岁以下所有意外死亡的主要原因。然而，由于对这类事件进行定量记录在很大程度上超出了道路运输的成本可行性，因此对碰撞前最后几秒和几毫秒内的反应进行行为分析一直是一项极其困难的任务。在此，报告了一种新的创新研究策略，该策略允许以安全有效的方式进行这种形式的调查。具体而言，构建了一个联动模拟环境，其中驾驶员实际位于两个相邻的整车模拟器中，在一个共享的单一虚拟驾驶世界中运行。如本文首次报道的那样，这种创新技术创造了一些情境，这些情境提供的避险反应与在现实世界条件下观察到的反应相似。在这个共享虚拟世界中，对46名参与者（25名女性，21名男性）进行了测试，他们在两种模糊的交通情况下相遇：一个十字路口和一个山坡场景。在十字路口，两名驾驶员以135度角相向而行，十字路口处的建筑物挡住了双方驾驶员尽早发现对方车辆的视线。第二种情况代表一种“逆行”冲突。每位驾驶员从相反方向沿着一条三车道高速公路行驶。一座小山阻碍了每位驾驶员对迎面而来车辆的视线，他们只能在冲突车辆到达山顶时短暂地看到它。记录驾驶员方向盘、刹车和油门启动的避险反应，精确到毫秒。通过一份经验后调查问卷获得定性结果，在问卷中询问参与者他们的驾驶习惯、模拟器体验以及他们对所遇到的实验事件的具体反应。结果表明：（1）创造了一些情境，这些情境提供了与在现实世界中记录到的避险反应相同的反应；（2）记录到的避险反应直接取决于观察时间；（3）本实验中非常短的观察时间导致了单一的避险行动，主要表现为随机选择向右侧或左侧转弯。目前的结果使我们认为，为了能够设计出在遇到的各种情况下做出适当反应的事故避险机制，有必要特别关注驾驶员之间的相互观察时间。根据目前的研究结果，评估了对碰撞避免行为科学的一般影响。
