Submitting Campus
Daytona Beach
Department
Human Factors and Behavioral Neurobiology
Document Type
Article
Publication/Presentation Date
4-2014
Abstract/Description
PURPOSE. To investigate the effect of different levels of refractive blur on real-world driving performance measured under day and nighttime conditions.
METHODS. Participants included 12 visually normal, young adults (mean age = 25.+- 5.2 years) who drove an instrumented research vehicle around a 4 km closed road circuit with three different levels of binocular spherical refractive blur (+0.50 diopter sphere [DS], +1.00 DS, +2.00 DS) compared with a baseline condition. The subjects wore optimal spherocylinder correction and the additional blur lenses were mounted in modified fullfield goggles; the order of testing of the blur conditions was randomized. Driving performance was assessed in two different sessions under day and nighttime conditions and included measures of road signs recognized, hazard detection and avoidance, gap detection, lanekeeping, sign recognition distance, speed, and time to complete the course.
RESULTS. Refractive blur and time of day had significant effects on driving performance (P < 0.05), where increasing blur and nighttime driving reduced performance on all driving tasks except gap judgment and lane keeping. There was also a significant interaction between blur and time of day (P < 0.05), such that the effects of blur were exacerbated under nighttime driving conditions; performance differences were evident even for +0.50 DS blur relative to baseline for some measures.
CONCLUSIONS. The effects of blur were greatest under nighttime conditions, even for levels of binocular refractive blur as low as +0.50 DS. These results emphasize the importance of accurate and up-to-date refractive correction of even low levels of refractive error when driving at night.
Publication Title
Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1167/iovs.13-13369
Publisher
The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Inc.
Scholarly Commons Citation
Wood JM, Collins MJ, Chaparro A, et al. Differential effects of refractive blur on day and nighttime driving performance. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2014;55:2284–2289. DOI:10.1167/iovs.13-13369
Included in
Automotive Engineering Commons, Human Factors Psychology Commons, Optometry Commons, Vision Science Commons
Additional Information
Dr. Alex Chaparro was not affiliated with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at the time this article was published.