a Department of Industrial Engineering and Management , Ben Gurion University of the Negev , Israel.
Traffic Inj Prev. 2015;16(2):133-9. doi: 10.1080/15389588.2014.909593. Epub 2014 Oct 8.
Driver distraction is known to increase crash risk, especially when a driver glances inside the vehicle for especially long periods of time. Though it is clear that such glances increase the risk for the driver when looking inside the vehicle, it is less clear how these glances disrupt the ongoing processing of information outside the vehicle once the driver's eyes return to the road. The present study was aimed at exploring the effect of in-vehicle glances on the top-down processes that guide the detection and monitoring of hazards on the forward roadway.
Using a driving simulator, 12 participants were monitored with an eye-tracking system while they navigated various hazardous scenarios. Six participants were momentarily interrupted by a visual secondary task (simulating a glance inside the vehicle) prior to the occurrence of a potential hazard and 6 were not.
Eye movement analyses showed that interrupted drivers often failed to continue scanning for a potential hazard when their forward view reappeared, especially when the potential threat could not easily be localized. Additionally, drivers' self-appraisal of workload and performance of the driving task indicated that, contrary to what one might expect, drivers in the interruption condition reported workload levels lower than and performance equal to drivers in the no interruption condition.
Drivers who are momentarily disrupted even for a brief duration are at risk of missing important information when they return their gaze to the forward roadway. In addition, because they are not aware of missing this information they are likely to continue engaging in in-vehicle tasks even though they are demonstrably unsafe. The implications for safety, calibration, and targeted remediation are discussed.
众所周知，驾驶员分神会增加撞车风险，尤其是当驾驶员长时间往车内看时。虽然很明显，当驾驶员往车内看时，这些扫视会增加驾驶员的风险，但不太清楚一旦驾驶员的眼睛回到道路上，这些扫视会如何打断车辆外部信息的持续处理。本研究旨在探讨车内扫视对自上而下过程的影响，这些过程指导着对前方道路危险的检测和监测。
使用驾驶模拟器，12 名参与者在导航各种危险场景时，通过眼动追踪系统进行监测。6 名参与者在潜在危险发生前会被一个视觉次要任务（模拟往车内看）短暂打断，而另外 6 名参与者则不会。
眼动分析表明，当中断的驾驶员的前方视野再次出现时，他们经常未能继续扫描潜在的危险，尤其是当潜在的威胁不容易定位时。此外，驾驶员对工作负荷和驾驶任务表现的自我评估表明，与人们可能预期的相反，中断条件下的驾驶员报告的工作负荷水平低于且与无中断条件下的驾驶员相当。
即使短暂中断，驾驶员在将视线重新回到前方道路时，也有可能错过重要信息。此外，由于他们没有意识到错过了这些信息，他们可能会继续进行车内任务，即使这些任务明显不安全。讨论了这些结果对安全性、校准和有针对性的补救的影响。
