Detection of Road Hazards in Brief Dynamic Scenes by Novice and Experienced Drivers

When a driver encounters a road hazard, they must react quickly to avoid a collision. This study examines differences between novice and experienced drivers in rapid detection of hazards in very brief dynamic road scenes. Participants viewed videos of 1,000 ms duration, selected from the Road Hazard Stimulus Set, and quickly pressed a key indicating whether they saw a hazard. NASA Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) was used to measure sustained attention. The experienced group had their driver’s license at least 1 year, while the novice group had their license less than 1 year. Results indicated that experienced drivers had higher percent correct and sensitivity of hazard detection, and fewer lapses on the NASA PVT, than novice drivers. Hazard detection reaction time was negatively correlated with length of driving experience. Findings suggest that more experienced drivers have greater accuracy and sensitivity of hazard detection, and greater sustained attention, as compared to novices.