Drivers’ Visual Attention Characteristics under Different Cognitive Workloads: An On-Road Driving Behavior Study

Yanli Ma, Shouming Qi, Yaping Zhang, Guan Lian, Weixin Lu and Ching-Yao Chan
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Yanli Ma: School of Transportation Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China
Shouming Qi: School of Transportation Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China
Yaping Zhang: School of Transportation Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China
Guan Lian: School of Architecture and Transportation Engineering, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin 541004, China
Weixin Lu: School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Ching-Yao Chan: California PATH, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94804, USA

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 15, 1-19

Abstract: In this study, an on-road driving experiment was designed to investigate the visual attention fixation and transition characteristics of drivers when they are under different cognitive workloads. First, visual attention was macroscopically analyzed through the entropy method. Second, the Markov glance one- and two-step transition probability matrices were constructed, which can study the visual transition characteristics under different conditions from a microscopic perspective. Results indicate that the fixation entropy value of male drivers is 23.08% higher than that of female drivers. Under the normal driving state, drivers’ fixation on in-vehicle systems is not continuous and usually shifts to the front and left areas quickly after such fixation. When under cognitive workload, drivers’ vision transition is concentrated only in the front and right areas. In mild cognitive workload, drivers’ sight trajectory is mainly focused on the distant front area. As the workload level increases, the transition trajectory shifts to the junction near the front and far sides. The current study finds that the difference between an on-road test and a driving simulation is that during the on-road driving process, drivers are twice as attentive to the front area than to the driving simulator. The research provides practical guidance for the improvement of traffic safety.

Keywords: on-road experiment; cognitive workload; visual fixation characteristics; visual transition characteristics; entropy method; Markov processes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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