Our research in the Otago Human Factors and Applied Cognition Lab addresses a range of issues relating to understanding performance errors and improving safety. This research employs diverse methods, from highly-controlled lab experiments using abstract geometric shapes as stimuli, to studies of driver attention in simulators and instrumented vehicles, to focus groups and field studies.

We are based in Dunedin, New Zealand. Our recent projects have involved a range of experimental and applied work. Some of the applied work has been conducted in collaboration with industry partners including KiwiRail, TrackSafe, Auckland Transport and Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency.

Attention, Inattentional Blindness and Real-World Hazard Perception

We assume that “seeing is believing”: that what we perceive is an accurate representation of the world. However, psychological research reveals that consciously “seeing” is more complex than simply looking; our eyes determine what we look at, but what we perceive is determined by factors including what we attend to, what we expect to see, and what else we are thinking or doing at the time. As a consequence we sometimes fail to notice large but unexpected objects, such as a train hurtling towards a railway crossing. These types of failures are responsible for an estimated 5-10% of road crashes, costing society billions of dollars each year.

Some of our research focuses on understanding how individuals detect and use informational cues in their visual environment. For example, what are the mechanisms that differentiate successful versus unsuccessful detection of targets? Can we identify strategies that can minimise performance errors without compromising search efficiency? Research examining these questions can involve classic lab experiments using paradigms such as visual search and inattentional blindness, or can focus on how we detect information in real-world settings, including how and why drivers can fail to notice obvious events, such as oncoming vehicles. For example, how do drivers detect potential hazards? What information pedestrians use when deciding whether it is safe to cross an intersection? How do we form expectations about hazards, and to what extent do external factors such as sleepiness or distractions exacerbate failures of attention and hazard perception? Understanding these issues will help us devise more effective policy and interventions to minimise the likelihood of perceptual errors.