Abstract
We explored whether Red Light Running Camera (RLRC) flashes can pull attention away from safety-relevant changes in simulated driving scenes using Inhibition of Return (IOR) and eye movement errors as measures of attention capture. Participants were asked to respond to the onset of brake lamps of a vehicle within a driving scene with a manual response (Experiment 1) or eye movement (Experiments 2 & 3). Manual and saccadic response times revealed strong IOR effects suggesting that, consistent with anecdotal reports, RLRC flashes can capture attention. At first participants were faster when the RLRC flash occurred on the same side of the display as the brake lamp event, but after approximately 300ms facilitation transitioned to inhibition. Furthermore, participants made erroneous eye movements to the flash rather than the brake lamp event when the flash was relatively infrequent (occurring on approximately 10% of trials). Additional experiments will be presented that explore how spatial predictability of the relevant roadway event can modulate the degree to which RLRC flashes can capture attention. This initial evidence for capture by RLRC flashes suggests that more research is necessary to examine how RLRC flash distraction might impact driving performance, and whether this distraction might partially explain the increase in certain types of crashes at intersections with RLRCs.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2014