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Quantitatively exploring the relationship between eye movement and driving behavior under the effect of different complex diagrammatic guide signs

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Abstract

Complex diagrammatic guide signs (DGSs) are widely used. To study the influence of DGSs with different complexities on drivers’ cognition, four types of typical DGSs on urban expressways in Beijing, China, were studied through a driving simulator experiment. Three indicators related to eye movement and three indicators related to driving behavior were collected and analyzed. The results indicated that the complexities of DGSs significantly increased the number of fixations, increased the number of saccades and decreased the duration of the first fixation on DGSs. More complex DGSs result in a greater difficulty for drivers in recognizing the destination on the DGSs. The complexities of DGSs also had a significant effect on driving behavior, including increasing the standard deviation of the average speed, increasing the driving distance during an acceleration change and increasing the average deceleration. When drivers observed a highly complex DGS, the vehicle speed appeared to significantly fluctuate and decrease, and drivers required a long time to comprehend the DGSs. Under the effect of different complex DGSs, indicators of the drivers’ eye movement and driving behavior are closely correlated, and the average relational degree is 0.645. In particular, relations of the number of saccades on DGSs with three indicators of driving behavior and of the driving distance during an acceleration change with two indicators of eye movement are closer than the relations between other parameters. This study provides a foundation for the influence of DGSs on drivers’ brain cognition and the optimization of complex DGSs, which will be investigated in future research.

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Acknowledgment

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China project (A Study on the Eco-driving Behavior Classification Model and Optimization Based on Deep Learning Theory. Project no. 61672067) and the BMCT (Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport) project (Research on Efficiency Evaluation and Optimization Method of Installation of Interchange Exit Guide Signs in Urban Expressway. Project no. 2016-kjc-01-002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Collaborative Innovation Center for Metropolitan Transportation, Beijing, 100124, People’s Republic of China

    Lihua Huang, Yang Bian, Xiaohua Zhao & Jian Rong

  2. College of Metropolitan Transportation, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, People’s Republic of China

    Lihua Huang, Yang Bian, Xiaohua Zhao & Jian Rong

  3. Huizhou City Traffic Planning Survey and Design Institute, Huizhou, 516001, People’s Republic of China

    Yachen Xu

  4. Beijing Key Laboratory of Traffic Engineering, The College of Metropolitan Transportation, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China

    Xiaohua Zhao

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  1. Lihua Huang
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  2. Yang Bian
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  3. Xiaohua Zhao
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  5. Jian Rong
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Correspondence to Xiaohua Zhao.

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Huang, L., Bian, Y., Zhao, X. et al. Quantitatively exploring the relationship between eye movement and driving behavior under the effect of different complex diagrammatic guide signs. Cogn Tech Work 22, 373–388 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-019-00577-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-019-00577-0

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