Effects of temporal and spatiotemporal cues on detection of dynamic road hazards

While driving, dangerous situations can occur quickly, and giving drivers extra time to respond may make the road safer for everyone. Extensive research on attentional cueing in cognitive psychology has shown that targets are detected faster when preceded by a spatially valid cue, and slower when pr...

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Main Authors: Wolfe, Benjamin, Kosovicheva, Anna, Stent, Simon, Rosenholtz, Ruth Ellen
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Springer International Publishing 2022
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/138791.2
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author Wolfe, Benjamin
Kosovicheva, Anna
Stent, Simon
Rosenholtz, Ruth Ellen
author2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
author_facet Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Wolfe, Benjamin
Kosovicheva, Anna
Stent, Simon
Rosenholtz, Ruth Ellen
author_sort Wolfe, Benjamin
collection MIT
description While driving, dangerous situations can occur quickly, and giving drivers extra time to respond may make the road safer for everyone. Extensive research on attentional cueing in cognitive psychology has shown that targets are detected faster when preceded by a spatially valid cue, and slower when preceded by an invalid cue. However, it is unknown how these standard laboratory-based cueing effects may translate to dynamic, real-world situations like driving, where potential targets (i.e., hazardous events) are inherently more complex and variable. Observers in our study were required to correctly localize hazards in dynamic road scenes across three cue conditions (temporal, spatiotemporal valid and spatiotemporal invalid), and a no-cue baseline. All cues were presented at the first moment the hazardous situation began. Both types of valid cues reduced reaction time (by 58 and 60 ms, respectively, with no significant difference between them, a larger effect than in many classic studies). In addition, observers’ ability to accurately localize hazards dropped 11% in the spatiotemporal invalid condition, a result with dangerous implications on the road. This work demonstrates that, in spite of this added complexity, classic cueing effects persist—and may even be enhanced—for the detection of real-world hazards, and that valid cues have the potential to benefit drivers on the road.
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spelling mit-1721.1/138791.22022-01-04T14:54:10Z Effects of temporal and spatiotemporal cues on detection of dynamic road hazards Wolfe, Benjamin Kosovicheva, Anna Stent, Simon Rosenholtz, Ruth Ellen Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences While driving, dangerous situations can occur quickly, and giving drivers extra time to respond may make the road safer for everyone. Extensive research on attentional cueing in cognitive psychology has shown that targets are detected faster when preceded by a spatially valid cue, and slower when preceded by an invalid cue. However, it is unknown how these standard laboratory-based cueing effects may translate to dynamic, real-world situations like driving, where potential targets (i.e., hazardous events) are inherently more complex and variable. Observers in our study were required to correctly localize hazards in dynamic road scenes across three cue conditions (temporal, spatiotemporal valid and spatiotemporal invalid), and a no-cue baseline. All cues were presented at the first moment the hazardous situation began. Both types of valid cues reduced reaction time (by 58 and 60 ms, respectively, with no significant difference between them, a larger effect than in many classic studies). In addition, observers’ ability to accurately localize hazards dropped 11% in the spatiotemporal invalid condition, a result with dangerous implications on the road. This work demonstrates that, in spite of this added complexity, classic cueing effects persist—and may even be enhanced—for the detection of real-world hazards, and that valid cues have the potential to benefit drivers on the road. 2022-01-04T14:54:09Z 2022-01-04T13:48:25Z 2022-01-04T14:54:09Z 2021-12 2021-12-26T04:07:18Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/138791.2 Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications. 2021 Dec 20;6(1):80 en https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-021-00348-4 Creative Commons Attribution https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ The Author(s) application/octet-stream Springer International Publishing Springer International Publishing
spellingShingle Wolfe, Benjamin
Kosovicheva, Anna
Stent, Simon
Rosenholtz, Ruth Ellen
Effects of temporal and spatiotemporal cues on detection of dynamic road hazards
title Effects of temporal and spatiotemporal cues on detection of dynamic road hazards
title_full Effects of temporal and spatiotemporal cues on detection of dynamic road hazards
title_fullStr Effects of temporal and spatiotemporal cues on detection of dynamic road hazards
title_full_unstemmed Effects of temporal and spatiotemporal cues on detection of dynamic road hazards
title_short Effects of temporal and spatiotemporal cues on detection of dynamic road hazards
title_sort effects of temporal and spatiotemporal cues on detection of dynamic road hazards
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/138791.2
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