Malone Sarah, Brünken Roland
Department of Education, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2021 Apr 22;12:647723. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.647723. eCollection 2021.
Driving simulators are becoming increasingly common in driver training and assessment. Since virtual reality is generally regarded as an appropriate environment for measuring risk behavior, simulators are also used to assess hazard perception, which is considered to be one of the most important skills for safe driving. Simulators, which offer challenges that are indeed comparable to driving in real traffic, but at a very low risk of physical injury, have the potential to complement theoretical and practical driver trainings and tests. Although configurations and fidelity differ considerably between driving simulators, studies comparing the impact of their distinct features on driving performance and test validity remain rare. In this context, prior research demonstrated that a wider field of view (three monitors compared to a single monitor) led to earlier speed adjustments in response to potential hazardsespecially for experienced drivers. The wider field of view was assumed to cause the drivers to be more present in the virtual world, which in turn provoked more natural scanning of the road and therefore, earlier hazard detection in experienced drivers. Research on spatial presence in other contexts support this assumption. The present experiment investigated whether this effect could be enhanced by an even more immersive presentation technique for driving simulation: a head-mounted display (HMD). Moreover, we studied the interplay between display mode, sense of presence and simulation sickness. Eighty experienced and less experienced drivers completed six simulation-based hazard perception scenarios, which were displayed either a triple-monitor set-up or an HMD. Results indicate that the experienced drivers showed very similar driving and risk behavior as the inexperienced drivers in both experimental conditions. However, there were significant differences between the two display conditions. The use of an HMD resulted in a clearer and more abrupt speed reduction, more virtual presence, and a higher degree of simulation sickness. However, the interrelation between these three variables could not be conclusively clarified in the present study and thus represents a research aim that could be addressed in future studies.
驾驶模拟器在驾驶员培训和评估中越来越普遍。由于虚拟现实通常被视为衡量风险行为的合适环境，模拟器也被用于评估危险感知能力，而危险感知被认为是安全驾驶最重要的技能之一。模拟器所提供的挑战确实与实际交通驾驶相当，但身体受伤风险极低，有潜力补充理论和实践驾驶员培训及测试。尽管驾驶模拟器的配置和逼真度差异很大，但比较其不同特征对驾驶性能和测试有效性影响的研究仍然很少。在这种背景下，先前的研究表明，更宽的视野（三台显示器与一台显示器相比）会导致在应对潜在危险时更早地调整速度，尤其是对于有经验的驾驶员。更宽的视野被认为会使驾驶员在虚拟世界中更身临其境，这反过来又促使他们更自然地扫视道路，从而使有经验的驾驶员能更早地检测到危险。在其他情境下关于空间临场感的研究支持了这一假设。本实验研究了一种用于驾驶模拟的更具沉浸感的呈现技术——头戴式显示器（HMD）是否能增强这种效果。此外，我们研究了显示模式、临场感和模拟晕动症之间的相互作用。80名经验丰富和经验不足的驾驶员完成了六个基于模拟的危险感知场景，这些场景通过三屏设置或HMD进行显示。结果表明，在两种实验条件下，经验丰富的驾驶员与经验不足的驾驶员表现出非常相似的驾驶和风险行为。然而，两种显示条件之间存在显著差异。使用HMD导致速度降低更明显、更突然，临场感更强，模拟晕动症程度更高。然而，在本研究中这三个变量之间的相互关系无法得到最终明确，因此这是一个可在未来研究中探讨的研究目标。
