School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, UK.
Accid Anal Prev. 2010 May;42(3):827-34. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2009.09.022.
Road crashes are the main cause of death of young people in the developed world. The reasons that cause traffic crashes are numerous; however, most researchers agree that a lack of driving experience is one of the major contributing factors. In addition it has been demonstrated that environmental factors such as driving during night and rain increases the risk of a crash. Both of these factors may be related to drivers' visual search strategies that become more efficient with increased experience. In the present study we recorded the eye movements of driving instructors and learner drivers while they drove three virtual routes that included day, night and rain routes in a driving simulator. The results showed that driving instructors had an increased sampling rate, shorter processing time and broader scanning of the road than learner drivers. This broader scanning of the road could be possibly explained by the mirror inspection pattern which revealed that driving instructors fixated more on the side mirrors than learner drivers. Also it was found that poor visibility conditions, especially rain, decrease the effectiveness of drivers' visual search. The lack of interaction between driving experience and visibility suggests that some aspects of visual search are affected by general rather than situation specific driving experience. The present findings support the effect of driving experience in modifying eye movement strategies. The high accident risk of night and rain driving could be partly explained by the decrement in visual search strategies during these conditions. Finally it is argued that the use of driving simulators can provide valuable insights regarding driving safety.
道路交通事故是发达国家年轻人死亡的主要原因。导致交通事故的原因很多；然而，大多数研究人员认为缺乏驾驶经验是造成事故的主要原因之一。此外，已经证明，夜间和雨天等环境因素会增加发生事故的风险。这两个因素可能与驾驶员的视觉搜索策略有关，随着经验的增加，这些策略会变得更加高效。在本研究中，我们在驾驶模拟器中记录了驾驶教练和学员驾驶员在驾驶三条虚拟路线（包括白天、夜间和雨天路线）时的眼动。结果表明，与学员驾驶员相比，驾驶教练的采样率更高，处理时间更短，对道路的扫描范围更广。这种更广泛的道路扫描可能可以通过后视镜检查模式来解释，该模式显示驾驶教练比学员驾驶员更关注侧视镜。此外，还发现能见度差的情况，特别是下雨，会降低驾驶员视觉搜索的效果。驾驶经验与能见度之间缺乏相互作用表明，视觉搜索的某些方面受到一般驾驶经验而非特定于情况的驾驶经验的影响。本研究结果支持驾驶经验对改变眼动策略的影响。夜间和雨天驾驶的高事故风险部分可以通过这些条件下视觉搜索策略的下降来解释。最后，有人认为驾驶模拟器的使用可以为驾驶安全提供有价值的见解。
