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What attracts attention during police pursuit driving?
Author(s) -
Crundall David,
Chapman Peter,
France Emma,
Underwood Geoffrey,
Phelps Nicola
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
applied cognitive psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.719
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1099-0720
pISSN - 0888-4080
DOI - 10.1002/acp.1067
Subject(s) - gaze , clips , psychology , visual attention , eye movement , task (project management) , smooth pursuit , software deployment , control (management) , eye tracking , cognitive psychology , poison control , cognition , computer science , medical emergency , computer vision , artificial intelligence , medicine , psychiatry , neuroscience , engineering , systems engineering , psychoanalysis , operating system
Efficient deployment of attention is important to the safe execution of tasks with a high content of visual information, such as driving. Chasing a lead vehicle is an extremely demanding and dangerous task, though little is known of the visual skills required. A study is reported that recorded the eye movements of police drivers and two control groups (novices and age‐ and experienced‐ matched controls) while watching a series of video clips of driving. The clips included pursuits, emergency response drives, and control drives (at normal speeds) around Nottinghamshire, UK. Analysis of gaze durations within certain categories of stimuli revealed that daytime pursuit drives correspond with an increase in gaze durations on a lead car (controlled for exposure), though police drivers direct their attention to other sources of potential hazards, such as pedestrians, more so than other drivers. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.