Using eye movements to evaluate a PC-based risk awareness and perception training program on a driving simulator

OBJECTIVE: Evaluation of the effects of a PC-based training program on risk perception in a driving simulator. BACKGROUND: Novice drivers have a fatality rate some eight times higher than that of the most experienced group of drivers, primarily because of the novice driver's inability to predict ahead of time the risks that will appear in the roadway. Current driver education programs, at least those in the United States, do not emphasize the teaching of risk awareness skills to novice drivers. METHOD: A PC-based risk awareness and perception training program was developed and evaluated. The training involved using plan (top-down) views of 10 risky scenarios that helped novice drivers identify where potential risks were located and what information should be attended. Both the 24 trained novice drivers and 24 untrained novice drivers were evaluated on an advanced driving simulator. The eye movements of both groups of drivers were measured. The evaluation on the driving simulator included both scenarios used in the training and others not used in training. RESULTS: The set of trained novice drivers were almost twice as likely as untrained drivers to fixate appropriately either on the regions where potential risks might appear or on signs that warned of potentially risky situations ahead, both for the scenarios they had encountered in training and for novel scenarios. APPLICATION: The PC training program developed, which is portable and can be widely used, has great promise in improving risk perception for novice drivers on the road.     

Relationships between driving simulator performance and driving test results

This article is considered relevant because: 1) car driving is an everyday and safety-critical task; 2) simulators are used to an increasing extent for driver training (related topics: training, virtual reality, human-machine interaction); 3) the article addresses relationships between performance in the simulator and driving test results--a relevant topic for those involved in driver training and the virtual reality industries; 4) this article provides new insights about individual differences in young drivers' behaviour. Simulators are being used to an increasing extent for driver training, allowing for the possibility of collecting objective data on driver proficiency under standardised conditions. However, relatively little is known about how learner drivers' simulator measures relate to on-road driving. This study proposes a theoretical framework that quantifies driver proficiency in terms of speed of task execution, violations and errors. This study investigated the relationships between these three measures of learner drivers' (n=804) proficiency during initial simulation-based training and the result of the driving test on the road, occurring an average of 6 months later. A higher chance of passing the driving test the first time was associated with making fewer steering errors on the simulator and could be predicted in regression analysis with a correlation of 0.18. Additionally, in accordance with the theoretical framework, a shorter duration of on-road training corresponded with faster task execution, fewer violations and fewer steering errors (predictive correlation 0.45). It is recommended that researchers conduct more large-scale studies into the reliability and validity of simulator measures and on-road driving tests.     

Relationships between driving simulator performance and driving test results

This article is considered relevant because: 1) car driving is an everyday and safety-critical task; 2) simulators are used to an increasing extent for driver training (related topics: training, virtual reality, human – machine interaction); 3) the article addresses relationships between performance in the simulator and driving test results–a relevant topic for those involved in driver training and the virtual reality industries; 4) this article provides new insights about individual differences in young drivers' behaviour. Simulators are being used to an increasing extent for driver training, allowing for the possibility of collecting objective data on driver proficiency under standardised conditions. However, relatively little is known about how learner drivers' simulator measures relate to on-road driving. This study proposes a theoretical framework that quantifies driver proficiency in terms of speed of task execution, violations and errors. This study investigated the relationships between these three measures of learner drivers' (n = 804) proficiency during initial simulation-based training and the result of the driving test on the road, occurring an average of 6 months later. A higher chance of passing the driving test the first time was associated with making fewer steering errors on the simulator and could be predicted in regression analysis with a correlation of 0.18. Additionally, in accordance with the theoretical framework, a shorter duration of on-road training corresponded with faster task execution, fewer violations and fewer steering errors (predictive correlation 0.45). It is recommended that researchers conduct more large-scale studies into the reliability and validity of simulator measures and on-road driving tests.     

Learning from errors in a driving simulation: effects on driving skill and self-confidence

Two experiments investigated the effect of making errors during training (error training) on a driving simulator versus learning from examples of errors (guided error training) on driving skill and confidence. Experiment 1 indicated that compared with errorless learning (where participants drove through a training run not designed to elicit errors), error training led to significantly better transfer to driving tests that were analogous to those situations encountered in training and more effective use of strategies for coping with a novel driving situation. Error training also reduced self-confidence in driving skill at the end of training relative to errorless learning. Experiment 2 provided weak evidence of the superiority of guided error training over errorless learning (where the driver in the video did not make any errors) on analogous tests, and no evidence of transfer to a novel test. Furthermore, guided error training did not influence self-confidence in driving skill. The potential value of driving simulators in providing active processing during driver training is discussed, along with the effects of passive and active exposure to errors on driver confidence.     

Learning from errors in a driving simulation: effects on driving skill and self-confidence

Two experiments investigated the effect of making errors during training (error training) on a driving simulator versus learning from examples of errors (guided error training) on driving skill and confidence. Experiment 1 indicated that compared with errorless learning (where participants drove through a training run not designed to elicit errors), error training led to significantly better transfer to driving tests that were analogous to those situations encountered in training and more effective use of strategies for coping with a novel driving situation. Error training also reduced self-confidence in driving skill at the end of training relative to errorless learning. Experiment 2 provided weak evidence of the superiority of guided error training over errorless learning (where the driver in the video did not make any errors) on analogous tests, and no evidence of transfer to a novel test. Furthermore, guided error training did not influence self-confidence in driving skill. The potential value of driving simulators in providing active processing during driver training is discussed, along with the effects of passive and active exposure to errors on driver confidence.     

Comparative evaluation of performance measures for human driving skills

In this paper, we evaluate the adequacy of several performance measures for the evaluation of driving skills between different drivers. This work was motivated by the need for a training system that captures the driving skills of an expert driver and transfers the skills to novice drivers using a haptic-enabled driving simulator. The performance measures examined include traditional task performance measures, e.g., the mean position error, and a stochastic distance between a pair of hidden Markov models (HMMs), each of which is trained for an individual driver. The emphasis of the latter is on the differences between the stochastic somatosensory processes of human driving skills. For the evaluation, we developed a driving simulator and carried out an experiment that collected the driving data of an expert driver whose data were used as a reference for comparison and of many other subjects. The performance measures were computed from the experimental data, and they were compared to each other. We also collected the subjective judgement scores of the driver’s skills made by a highly-experienced external evaluator, and these subjective scores were compared with the objective performance measures. Analysis results showed that the HMM-based distance metric had a moderately high correlation between the subjective scores and it was also consistent with the other task performance measures, indicating the adequacy of the HMM-based metric as an objective performance measure for driving skill learning. The findings of this work can contribute to developing a driving simulator for training with an objective assessment function of driving skills.     

The effects of habituation and adding a rest-frame on experienced simulator sickness in an advanced mobility scooter driving simulator

The aim of this article is to investigate the effect of a physical rest-frame, habituation and age on simulator sickness in an advanced mobility scooter driving simulator. Twenty-six young and 34 older adults completed a total of 12 drives in an advanced mobility scooter driving simulator over two visits. A 2x2 crossover design was used to measure the effect of a rest frame that was added to the driving simulator on either the first or second visit. The Simulator Sickness Questionnaire was used to measure simulator sickness symptoms. A significant decrease in simulator sickness was observed between the first and the second visit. Older adults reported more severe simulator sickness symptoms compared to younger participants. No effect of rest-frame could be found. Habituation appears to be the most effective method to reduce simulator sickness in an advanced mobility scooter driving simulator. More research is needed to investigate simulator sickness in patient groups.

Practitioner summary: Experiencing simulator sickness is a major problem across all types of simulators. The present experiment investigated the effect of a rest-frame, habituation and age on developing simulator sickness symptoms in an advanced mobility scooter driving simulator. Habituation appeared to be the most effective method to reduce simulator sickness.     

Transfer of computer-based training to simulated driving in older adults

As the population of many industrialized countries ages, the number of older drivers on the roads increases. Statistics show that older drivers are at increased risk for involvement in fatal accidents. One explanation for this is the cognitive and motor declines associated with the aging process. As we age, performance on attention, memory and motor control tasks, three important components of driving, declines. In the present study we examined the relationship between performance on component cognitive tasks and the influence of training on these tasks on the simulated driving performance of older adults. More specifically, we assessed performance on and trained older adults on single and dual tasks of attention, working memory and manual control. Regression analyses demonstrated that performance on the single and dual cognitive tasks and improvements in these computer-based tasks with training were predictive of improvements in driving simulator performance across the course of the study. These data suggest that relatively simple single and dual computer-based tasks and modest amounts of training on these tasks can improve driving performance in older adults, thereby extending functional independence.     

Young novice driver subtypes: relationship to high-risk behavior, traffic accident record, and simulator driving performance

Two studies were undertaken to obtain empirical support for the existence of driver subtypes in the young novice driver population. In Study 1, 198 participants (55% male) aged 16 to 19 completed an extensive self-report questionnaire. Five novice driver subtypes were identified through a cluster analysis of personality and driving-related measures. Two relatively high-risk or deviant subtypes (Clusters 1 and 5) were identified, characterized by high levels of driving-related aggression, competitive speed, driving to reduce tension, sensation seeking, assaultiveness, and hostility. The individuals in Cluster 5 also reported low levels of emotional adjustment and high levels of depression, resentfulness, and irritability. In Study 2, a subset of participants from each of the subtypes drove several scenarios in a driving simulator. The subtypes differed in their responses to an emergency situation and several potential traffic hazards. They also differed in the proficiency with which they could control their attention among concurrent tasks in high-workload situations. Most of the significant differences were related to lower levels of driving skill among the two most deviant subtypes (Clusters 1 and 5). The potential applications of this research include the design of training programs and other countermeasures to address the young novice driver crash problem.     

Effects of an in-vehicle collision avoidance warning system on short- and long-term driving performance

Many new in-vehicle systems focus on accident prevention by facilitating the driving task. One such driving aid is an in-vehicle collision avoidance warning system (IVCAWS), used to alert the driver to an impending collision. Our study evaluated the effects of an imperfect IVCAWS both on driver headway maintenance and on driver behavior in response to warning system errors. Our results showed that drivers tend to overestimate their headway and consequently drive with short and potentially dangerous headways, and that IVCAWSs are a useful tool for educating drivers to estimate headway more accurately. Moreover, our study showed that after a relatively short exposure to the system, drivers were able to maintain longer and safer headways for at least six months. The practical implications of these results are that the use of an IVCAWS should be considered for inclusion in driver education and training programs.     

Effects of advertising billboards during simulated driving

There is currently a great deal of interest in the problem of driver distraction. Most research focuses on distractions from inside the vehicle, but drivers can also be distracted by objects outside the vehicle. Major roads are increasingly becoming sites for advertising billboards, and there is little research on the potential effects of this advertising on driving performance. The driving simulator experiment presented here examines the effects of billboards on drivers, including older and inexperienced drivers who may be more vulnerable to distractions. The presence of billboards changed drivers’ patterns of visual attention, increased the amount of time needed for drivers to respond to road signs, and increased the number of errors in this driving task.     

Using eye movements to evaluate effects of driver age on risk perception in a driving simulator

Novice drivers (16-year-olds with < or = 6 months' driving experience) have the highest crash involvement rates per 100 million vehicle miles (161 million vehicle km). In the past, this was attributed to greater risk taking or poorly developed psychomotor skills. More recently, however, their high crash involvement rate has been hypothesized to be attributable largely to their relative inability to acquire and assess information in inherently risky situations. The current study seeks to evaluate this hypothesis by recording eye movements while 72 participants (24 novice drivers, 24 younger drivers, and 24 older drivers) drove through 16 risky scenarios in an advanced driving simulator. There were significant age-related differences in driver scanning behavior, consistent with the hypothesis that novice drivers' scanning patterns reflect their failure to acquire information about potential risks and their consequent failure to deal with these risks. Actual or potential applications of this research include modification of these scenarios for display on a PC as a basis for a training module that would enable novice drivers to recognize risky scenarios before they encounter them on the road, in the hope of reducing their high fatality rate.     

The impact of distraction mitigation strategies on driving performance

OBJECTIVES: An experiment was conducted to assess the effects of distraction mitigation strategies on drivers' performance and productivity while engaged in an in-vehicle information system task. BACKGROUND: Previous studies show that in-vehicle tasks undermine driver safety and there is a need to mitigate driver distraction. METHOD: An advising strategy that alerts drivers to potential dangers and a locking strategy that prevents the driver from continuing the distracting task were presented to 16 middle-aged and 12 older drivers in a driving simulator in two modes (auditory, visual) and two road conditions (curves, braking events). RESULTS: Distraction was a problem for both age groups. Visual distractions were more detrimental than auditory ones for curve negotiation, as depicted by more erratic steering, F (6, 155) = 26.76, p < .05. Drivers did brake more abruptly under auditory distractions, but this effect was mitigated by both the advising, t (155) = 8.37, p < .05, and locking strategies, t (155) = 8.49, p < .05. The locking strategy also resulted in longer minimum time to collision for middle-aged drivers engaged in visual distractions, F (6, 138) = 2.43, p < .05. CONCLUSIONS: Adaptive interfaces can reduce abrupt braking on curve entries resulting from auditory distractions and can also improve the braking response for distracted drivers. APPLICATION: These strategies can be incorporated into existing in-vehicle systems, thus mitigating the effects of distraction and improving driver performance.     

Enhanced postural stability following driver training is associated with positive effects in vehicle kinematics during cornering

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of a specific post-license driver training program on postural stability and vehicle kinematics during cornering. BACKGROUND: Inertial forces experienced during driving can perturb a driver's posture, which may in turn diminish a driver's perceptual sensitivity and corresponding control actions. METHODS: A trainee group (n=21) and control group (n=12) participated in the study. The trainee group participated in a 2-day driver training program that included instruction on how to enhance perceptual sensitivity, postural stability, and vehicle kinematics during common driving maneuvers, including cornering. Postural stability and vehicle kinematics were assessed during cornering maneuvers performed on a closed-circuit track using an instrumented vehicle prior to and following training. RESULTS: Trainee drivers experienced enhanced postural stability and reduced the magnitude and onset of peak vehicle lateral accelerations following training. Prior to training, drivers who were more posturally unstable tended to experience higher lateral vehicle accelerations, and drivers with the biggest improvements in postural stability following training tended to experience the greatest reductions in lateral accelerations of the vehicle. CONCLUSION: Training led to changes in postural stability that were associated with reduced lateral accelerations during cornering. APPLICATION: The reduction in lateral accelerations following training in the present study indicates a greater dynamic margin of safety for cornering. Overall findings suggest that the driver training programs produced beneficial effects on cornering kinematics and that these effectswere associated with enhanced postural stability.     

Attention and driving skills in aging and Alzheimer's disease.

The number of older drivers with dementia is rising with the aging of the adult population. A public health issue is growing because of concerns about the motor vehicle accident risk posed by drivers with dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT) and other progressive, degenerative dementias. However, little is known about the specific perceptual/cognitive deficits contributing to impaired driving in DAT. The present paper proposes, on both theoretical and empirical grounds, that attentional skills in relation to driving should be examined in older adults with and without DAT. Such investigations should focus on normal older adults and those in the mild, early stages of dementia because the latter are the most likely among the dementia population to be still driving. Evidence is presented indicating (1) that motor vehicle accident rates are related to performance on information-processing measures of different components of attention; (2) that this relationship is greatest for measures of the switching of selective attention and less for that of divided and sustained attention (vigilance); and (3) that many of these same attentional functions, and particularly the switching of visual selective attention, are impaired in the early stages of DAT and thus may contribute to increased accident risk. Further studies of cognitive and driving performance in older drivers are necessary to establish that the attentional impairments found in mild DAT contribute to increased accident risk. Implications of these findings for driver assessment, education, and training are discussed.     

Shared steering control: How strong and how prompt should the intervention be for a better driving experience?

The lane keeping assistance system, a representative advanced driver assistance system, comprises a shared control that cooperates with the driver to achieve a common goal. The steering experience of the driver may vary significantly depending on the auto-steering control strategy of the system. In this study, we examined the driving experience with various steering control strategies. Nine control strategies (three torque amounts × three deviations in starting control) were established as prototypes. Eighteen drivers participated in the evaluation of each strategy in a highway environment on a driving simulator. A two-way repeated measure ANOVA was used to assess the effects of the system. Both the objective measures (standard deviation of lane position, steering reversal rate, and root mean square of lateral speed) and subjective measures (pleasure and arousal of emotion, trust, disturbance, and satisfaction) were evaluated and analyzed. The results showed that a torque amount of 3 Nm evoked feelings of high disturbance and negative emotional responses. A deviation in starting control (DEV) of 0.80 m yielded unstable lane keeping performances and evoked negative effects on pleasure, trust, and satisfaction. A regression model for the driver satisfaction recommended a torque of 2.32 Nm and a DEV of 0.27 m as the optimal design parameters. This proposed strategy is expected to improve the experience design of lateral semi-autonomous vehicles.     

A study on the factors that improve the velocity perception of a virtual reality‐based vehicle simulator

The Virtual Reality (VR) system of a real‐time VR‐linked vehicle simulator that was used in this study provides visual information and sound effects to participants. The VR system of a VR‐linked vehicle simulator should provide a perceived velocity similar with the perceived velocity in actual driving. To achieve these goals, modeling and rendering methods that offer an improved performance for complex VR applications, such as the 3D road model, were implemented and evaluated. We also evaluated the influences of graphic and engine sound effects on the driver and analyzed each result according to a driver's viewpoint, the dot densities of road texture provided, the lateral distance between a virtual driver and environmental objects, and the engine sound. Each factor was individually analyzed through an experiment that evaluated the influence of visual images or sound effects in the vehicle simulator. Through the experimental evaluation, the research results could be used for improving the effectiveness of VR‐based vehicle simulators.     

Role of lateral acceleration in curve driving: driver model and experiments on a real vehicle and a driving simulator

Experimental studies show that automobile drivers adjust their speed in curves so that maximum vehicle lateral accelerations decrease at high speeds. This pattern of lateral accelerations is described by a new driver model, assuming drivers control a variable safety margin of perceived lateral acceleration according to their anticipated steering deviations. Compared with a minimum time-to-lane-crossing (H. Godthelp, 1986) speed modulation strategy, this model, based on nonvisual cues, predicts that extreme values of lateral acceleration in curves decrease quadratically with speed, in accordance with experimental data obtained in a vehicle driven on a test track and in a motion-based driving simulator. Variations of model parameters can characterize "normal" or "fast" driving styles on the test track. On the simulator, it was found that the upper limits of lateral acceleration decreased less steeply when the motion cuing system was deactivated, although drivers maintained a consistent driving style. This is interpreted per the model as an underestimation of curvilinear speed due to the lack of inertial stimuli. Actual or potential applications of this research include a method to assess driving simulators as well as to identify driving styles for on-board driver aid systems.     

Influence of age and proximity warning devices on collision avoidance in simulated driving

OBJECTIVE: We conducted a set of experiments to examine the utility of several different uni- and multimodal collision avoidance systems (CASs) on driving performance of young and older adult drivers in a high-fidelity simulator. BACKGROUND: Although previous research has examined the efficacy of different CASs on collision avoidance, there has been a dearth of studies that have examined such devices in different driving situations with different populations of drivers. METHOD: Several different CAS warnings were examined in varying traffic and collision configurations both without (Experiment 1a) and with (Experiment 2) a distracting in-vehicle task. RESULTS: Overall, collision avoidance performance for both potential forward and side object collisions was best for an auditory/visual CAS, which alerted drivers using both modalities. Interestingly, older drivers (60-82 years of age) benefited as much as younger drivers from the CAS, and sometimes they benefited more. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that CASs can be beneficial across a number of different driving scenarios, types of collisions, and driver populations. APPLICATION: These results have important implications for the design and implementation of CASs for different driver populations and driving conditions.     

Use of a fixed-base driving simulator to evaluate the effects of experience and PC-based risk awareness training on drivers' decisions

Driver education classes were once seen as a remedy for young drivers' overinvolvement in crashes, but research results from the early 1970s were disappointing. Few changes in the content or methods of instruction occurred until recently, but this could change rapidly. Personal computers (PCs) can now present videos or photorealistic simulations of risky, cognitively demanding traffic scenarios that require quick responses without putting the participant at risk. As such programs proliferate, evaluating their effectiveness poses a major challenge. We report the use of a fixed-base driving simulator to study the effects of both experience on the road and PC-based risk awareness training on younger drivers' part-task simulator driving performance in risky traffic scenarios. We ran three groups of drivers on the simulator: one group first trained on the PC (younger, inexperienced drivers) and two groups who received no PC training (younger, inexperienced and experienced drivers). Overall, the younger, inexperienced drivers who were trained on a PC operated their vehicles in risky scenarios in ways that differed measurably from those of the untrained younger, inexperienced drivers and, more important, in ways that we believe would decrease their exposure to risk considering that, on average, their behavior was more similar to the behavior of the untrained, experienced drivers. More research is needed to demonstrate whether these findings apply on the open road to the larger population of younger drivers. However, at least initially, the research suggests that PC-based risk awareness training programs have the potential to reduce the high crash rate among younger, inexperienced drivers.