Effects of temporal and spatiotemporal cues on detection of dynamic road hazards

While driving, dangerous situations can occur quickly, and giving drivers extra time to respond may make the road safer for everyone. Extensive research on attentional cueing in cognitive psychology has shown that targets are detected faster when preceded by a spatially valid cue, and slower when preceded by an invalid cue. However, it is unknown how these standard laboratory-based cueing effects may translate to dynamic, real-world situations like driving, where potential targets (i.e., hazardous events) are inherently more complex and variable. Observers in our study were required to correctly localize hazards in dynamic road scenes across three cue conditions (temporal, spatiotemporal valid and spatiotemporal invalid), and a no-cue baseline. All cues were presented at the first moment the hazardous situation began. Both types of valid cues reduced reaction time (by 58 and 60 ms, respectively, with no significant difference between them, a larger effect than in many classic studies). In addition, observers’ ability to accurately localize hazards dropped 11% in the spatiotemporal invalid condition, a result with dangerous implications on the road. This work demonstrates that, in spite of this added complexity, classic cueing effects persist—and may even be enhanced—for the detection of real-world hazards, and that valid cues have the potential to benefit drivers on the road. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s41235-021-00348-4.