Visual Searching Strategies of Railway Drivers for Recognizing Extraordinary Events

Abstract

In focusing on the manner in which drivers recognize extraordinary events occurring in front of them, visual searching is crucial. The purpose of this study is to investigate effective visual searching in recognizing extraordinary events based on the eye movements of drivers. One hundred twenty one drivers of a railway company participated in our study. An experiment was conducted using a railway driving simulator with eye tracker. The given driving scenario was a multi-task scenario in which the main task was to stop the simulated train before a ground device malfunction. The important sub-task was to recognize an extraordinary event, which was a subsidence of railway track on their right. Participants who stopped the simulated train before passing the subsidence were identified as part of the Recognizing Group; participants who passed the subsidence were identified as part of the Non-recognizing Group. Visual behaviors of both groups were analyzed. The findings revealed that total of gaze duration in ahead area by the Recognizing Group was longer than that by the Non-recognizing Group. Each gaze duration in ahead area by the Recognizing Group was also longer than that by the Non-recognizing Group.