The effect of situational hazard level on pedestrian hazard perception: Evidence from event-related potentials

The impact of safety attitude on hazard identification and risk analysis: evidence from event-related potentials

A questionnaire survey and an event-related potential (ERP) experiment were used to reveal the impact of safety attitudes on risk perception. The results revealed that during hazard identification, the N130 amplitude of subjects with negative safety attitude was significantly higher, which implied that subjects with negative safety attitude were more likely to feel confused. During risk analysis, subjects with positive safety attitude were more inclined to overestimate the probability and damage degree of risks; subjects with positive safety attitudes displayed higher P150 and late positive potential amplitudes, which indicated that subjects with positive safety attitudes devoted more attention to risks in the early stage of risk analysis and had a more intense affective response in the later period. The risk judgment ability of subjects with positive safety attitude was affected by time pressure, and they exhibited higher risk judgment accuracy only under no time pressure.

Effects of sleep deprivation and hazard types on the hazard perception of young novice drivers: An ERP study

OBJECTIVE

The present study aimed to explore the effects of sleep deprivation on young novice drivers' cognitive neural processing of different hazard types.

METHOD

A 2 (sleep deprivation group, control group) × 3 (no hazard, covert hazard, overt hazard) mixed experimental design was used. Twenty-eight young drivers were sleep-deprived (no sleep within the past 24 h), while 28 drivers were in the control group (maintaining a normal schedule throughout the week). Eighty pictures containing a covert hazard (20 pictures), overt hazard (20 pictures) and no hazard (40 pictures) were presented. Participants were asked to press the keyboard quickly if they detected a hazard situation. The reaction time, accuracy, and changes in the N1 (100-150 ms) and N2 (250-350 ms) components of event-related potentials (ERP) measured using electroencephalography (EEG) were obtained.

RESULTS

Compared to the control group, the response accuracy of sleep-deprived drivers was higher in the cover-hazard situation and their N1 latency was longer in the no-hazard situation. Compared to the no-hazard and overt-hazard situations, the participants' reaction times and N2 amplitudes were significantly greater, and the response accuracy was significantly lower in the covert-hazard situation.

CONCLUSION

Hazard perception is compromised when drivers are sleep-deprived, especially when they are confronted with covert hazard situations. The findings help understand the negative effects of sleep deprivation in the early stage of young novice drivers' hazard perception.

Effects of hazard type and confidence level on hazard perception in young male drivers: an ERP study

Hazard perception refers to a driver's ability to identify potential hazards on the road. Although studies have shown that overconfidence affects drivers' ability to perceive hazards, the neural processing of hazard perception in overconfident drivers under different hazard types has rarely been investigated. A mixed experimental design of 2 (hazard type: hazards, no hazards) × 2 (driver group: overconfident driver, control group) was used. A total of 120 images (60 with hazards and 60 without hazards) were presented to 25 overconfident drivers and 25 drivers in the control group. Reaction time, response accuracy, P200 (200-250 ms), and N2 (280-330 ms) components were measured via event-related potential (ERP) technology. Response times of overconfident drivers are slower than those of the control group regardless of hazard types. The P200 latency of overconfident drivers was longer than that of their peers in hazard situations, while the P200 latency was similar between the two groups in no-hazard situations. Although a significant interaction was found on the N2 amplitude, no significant differences were found between the two groups in both hazard and no-hazard situations. Overconfident drivers have worse hazard perception performance in hazard situations with slower reaction times and greater P200 latencies than their peers. More importantly, P200 amplitude and N2 amplitude are sensitive to hazard types, while P200 amplitude and N2 latency can discriminate between driver groups. The findings help understand the negative impact of overconfidence on young drivers and contribute to the development and training of hazard perception tests.

Gender differences in pedestrian hazard perception: evidence from an event-related potential study

OBJECTIVE

Gender differences in pedestrian hazard perception were investigated using the event-related potential technique.

METHODS

The study utilized images of two types of real traffic situations as test materials: hazard situations and nonhazard situations. The presence of hazards in the displayed situations was determined by 30 adult subjects (including 17 females), who indicated their observations by pressing a button.

RESULTS

The results revealed that females exhibited a shorter N1 latency in hazard situations, while males exhibited a larger P3 amplitude compared to females.

CONCLUSION

These results indicate that females are more sensitive to hazard situations during the early visual processing stage, while males give more attention to traffic situations during the late attention allocation stage.

Group environment modulates how third parties assess unfairly shared losses and unfairly shared gains: neural signatures from ERPs and EEG oscillations

INTRODUCTION

Through its long-term evolution and development, human society has gradually formed stable and effective norms to maintain normal social production and social activities. Altruistic punishment is indispensable in maintaining social norms. Altruistic punishment includes second-party and third-party punishment, and third-party punishment refers to punishing violators by unbiased bystanders who have not suffered damage to their interests. Cooperation is an important form of human social interaction. Third parties play an essential role in maintaining social cooperation. Third parties' behaviors in maintaining cooperative norms may be related to their social environment.

METHOD

We used the prisoner's dilemma (PD) game and distinguished between the gain and loss contexts of the economy to explore how the group environment modulates the cognitive neural mechanisms and psychological processing of the third-party punishment decision. Twenty-six college students (Mage = 19.88 ± 1.58) participated in the experiment; data from four participants were excluded from analyses of the EEG data due to large artifacts.

RESULTS

The behavioral results show that the degree of punishment from the third party in a loss context was greater than in a gain context. ERP analysis results show that the third party applied a lower P300 in the loss context. The loss context induced a greater N100 than the gain context in the individual environment. At the same time, alpha-band power activated by the individual environment was greater than that activated by the group environment under the gain context.

CONCLUSION

These results suggest that a third party maintaining the norms of social cooperation in different contexts will adjust punishment decisions according to the environment, and this process is mainly dominated by the negative emotions caused by environment.

The effect of the degree and location of danger in traffic hazard perception: an ERP study

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study is to explore the influence of the degree and location of the danger of traffic hazards on the neural reaction process.

METHODS

26 automobile drivers were asked to look at the pictures and press buttons on the pictures unrelated to traffic. Electroencephalography responses to traffic-related images were recorded and analyzed.

RESULTS

It was found that danger in the central visual region induced a larger amplitude of the N100 component than in the peripheral visual region and the trend of different hazard levels was consistent. The danger in the central visual area also induced a larger amplitude of the P200 component than in the peripheral vision area. In addition, when the danger appeared in the central visual area (0°), the P200 amplitude induced by the low-hazard situation was smaller than that of the high-hazard situation. When the danger appeared in the peripheral visual area (7°), the P200 amplitude induced by the low-hazard situation was larger than that of the high-hazard situation. Finally, the presence of danger evoked a larger amplitude of the P300 component in the peripheral visual area than in the central visual area and the P300 amplitude was larger in the low-hazard situation than in the high-hazard situation.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest that hazards are more easily processed in the central visual area during the early stage of automatic perception. In the later hazard evaluation stage, the hazard in the central visual area and the high-hazard situation were more easily processed.