Using Experts' Eye Movements to Influence Scanning Behaviour in Novice Drivers.

In many areas, experts often exhibit specialised eye movement behaviour which allows for more efficient task execution than novices. In some areas (e.g. Radiology), showing this pattern of eye movement behaviour to novices can help cue overt visual attention to more relevant areas; which allows for more efficient task completion. We present a study which investigated the effects of eye movement cueing in a dynamic task - that of driving. The aim was to investigate whether a more efficient visual search pattern (e.g. increased scanning of the road, increased use of mirrors) could be induced in novice drivers if they are shown eye movements of expert drivers, when driving in a simulated environment. One group of participants (eye movement condition) were asked to drive a set of courses in a driving simulator programme whilst their eye movements were tracked. After one week, this group was shown two five minute videos of an expert's drive with the corresponding eye movements overlaid. Participants were then asked to drive the three courses again whilst their eye movements were tracked. Another group of participants (control) were asked to complete similar drives (one week a part also) but were not shown eye movements. After the second driving session, those in the eye movement condition exhibited increased horizontal scanning of the road, larger saccade sizes and showed an increased use of their mirrors as measured by total dwell time and total fixation counts. The control group showed no such improvement in visual strategies. These beneficial eye movement patterns were retained after a six month follow-up. The results show that eye movement cueing can be used to train more efficient search strategies in a dynamic task such as driving. The current results highlight a possible training intervention which could be introduced to educate early-stage drivers. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.