Research on Attention Capacity Measurement for Drivers’ Visual Space Information

In this paper, drivers’ visual space attention capacity was researched, and a way of measuring this attention capacity by driving simulation experiments has been proposed. Firstly, based on static and dynamic traffic information the quantitative and incremental stimulus information sources were established and the road traffic virtual scenes with different amounts of information sources were built. Then 30 subjects (half experienced and half novice) were selected to participate the simulation experiments, the amount of stimulus information that the subjects sensed at each test point were tested, and subjective questionnaires were carried out after each test. Finally, experiment data were statistically analyzed. The results shown that when the stimulus information was 2 or 3, the subjects could get the information, however, when the number of stimulus was 4 or 5 or 6, the amount of information that the subjects sensed were obviously decreased to 38, 19 and 8% separately. The subjects’ average attention capacity was 4.27, but there was a significant difference (p = 0.02) between the experienced and the novice. The attention capacity for experienced drivers was 5, and that was only 3.54 for the novice. Moreover, during driving, the distribution of the amount of information obtained by the subjects was similar to the Poisson distribution. The results should have a guidance for the research of driver’s psychological behavior and intervention, as well as the renovation of traffic information sources and environment.