Ioannidou Flora, Hermens Frouke, Hodgson Timothy L
School of Psychology, University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, LN6 7TS Lincoln, UK.
J Technol Behav Sci. 2017;2(3):109-120. doi: 10.1007/s41347-017-0022-6. Epub 2017 Nov 28.
Stair walking is a hazardous activity and a common cause of fatal and non-fatal falls. Previous studies have assessed the role of eye movements in stair walking by asking people to repeatedly go up and down stairs in quiet and controlled conditions, while the role of peripheral vision was examined by giving participants specific fixation instructions or working memory tasks. We here extend this research to stair walking in a natural environment with other people present on the stairs and a now common secondary task: using one's mobile phone. Results show that using the mobile phone strongly draws one's attention away from the stairs, but that the distribution of gaze locations away from the phone is little influenced by using one's phone. Phone use also increased the time needed to walk the stairs, but handrail use remained low. These results indicate that limited foveal vision suffices for adequate stair walking in normal environments, but that mobile phone use has a strong influence on attention, which may pose problems when unexpected obstacles are encountered.
走楼梯是一项危险活动，也是导致致命和非致命摔倒的常见原因。以往的研究通过要求人们在安静且可控的条件下反复上下楼梯来评估眼动在走楼梯过程中的作用，而通过给参与者特定的注视指令或工作记忆任务来研究周边视觉的作用。我们在此将这项研究扩展到自然环境中的走楼梯情况，此时楼梯上有其他人，并且存在一项如今很常见的次要任务：使用手机。结果表明，使用手机会强烈吸引人们的注意力，使其从楼梯上转移开，但远离手机的注视位置分布受使用手机的影响较小。使用手机还增加了走楼梯所需的时间，但扶手的使用率仍然很低。这些结果表明，在正常环境中，有限的中央凹视觉足以满足安全走楼梯的需求，但使用手机会对注意力产生强烈影响，当遇到意外障碍物时可能会引发问题。
