Better off Alone

Abstract

It is well known that traffic collisions can easily occur when a driver’s attention is consumed by task irrelevant information (e.g. cellphone, or billboards). Is it possible though that drivers will fail to identify certain hazards or traffic signals because their focus is consumed by other, equally, pertinent events on the road? In order to answer this question, the present study adopted a simulated driver awareness task which used Satisfaction of Search to show that when drivers are faced with a single low-salience hazard, they will be significantly more likely to identify it then if presented alongside another high-salience hazard. The results indicated that highly salient objects may actually prevent drivers from being able to locate other targets on the road, regardless of their relevance.