Chloe J. Robbins
The ‘Saw but Forgot’ error: A role for short-term memory failures in understanding junction crashes?
Robbins, Chloe J.; Allen, Harriet A.; Miller, Karl A.; Chapman, Peter
Authors
HARRIET ALLEN H.A.Allen@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor of Lifespan Psychology
Karl A. Miller
PETER CHAPMAN PETER.CHAPMAN@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Associate Professor
Contributors
Feng Chen
Editor
Abstract
Motorcyclists are involved in an exceptionally high number of crashes for the distance they travel, with one of the most common incidents being where another road user pulls out into the path of an oncoming motorcycle frequently resulting in a fatal collision. These instances have previously been interpreted as failures of visual attention, sometimes termed ‘Look but Fail to See’ (LBFTS) crashes, and interventions have focused on improving drivers’ visual scanning and motorcycles’ visibility. Here we show from a series of three experiments in a high-fidelity driving simulator, that when drivers’ visual attention towards and memory for approaching vehicles is experimentally tested, drivers fail to report approaching motorcycles
on between 13% and 18% of occasions. This happens even when the driver is pulling out into a safety-critical gap in front of the motorcycle, and often happens despite the driver having directly fixated on the oncoming vehicle. These failures in reporting a critical vehicle were not associated with how long the driver looked at the vehicle for, but were associated with drivers’ subsequent visual search and the time that elapsed between fixating on the oncoming vehicle and pulling out of the junction. Here, we raise the possibility that interference in short-term memory might prevent drivers holding important visual information during these complex manoeuvres. This explanation suggests that some junction crashes on real roads that have been attributed to LBFTS errors may have been misclassified and might instead be the result of ‘Saw but Forgot’ (SBF) errors. We provide a framework for understanding the role of short-term memory in such situations, the Perceive Retain Choose (PRC) model, as well as novel predictions and proposals for practical interventions that may prevent this type of crash in the future.
Citation
Robbins, C. J., Allen, H. A., Miller, K. A., & Chapman, P. (2019). The ‘Saw but Forgot’ error: A role for short-term memory failures in understanding junction crashes?. PLoS ONE, 14(9), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0222905
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Sep 10, 2019 |
Online Publication Date | Sep 23, 2019 |
Publication Date | Sep 23, 2019 |
Deposit Date | Sep 24, 2019 |
Publicly Available Date | Sep 24, 2019 |
Journal | PLOS ONE |
Electronic ISSN | 1932-6203 |
Publisher | Public Library of Science |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 14 |
Issue | 9 |
Article Number | e0222905 |
Pages | 1-22 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0222905 |
Keywords | General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology; General Agricultural and Biological Sciences; General Medicine |
Public URL | https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2654295 |
Publisher URL | https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0222905 |
Contract Date | Sep 24, 2019 |
Files
The ‘Saw but Forgot’ error: A role for shortterm memory failures in understanding junction crashes?
(1.5 Mb)
PDF
Publisher Licence URL
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
You might also like
Visual integration in autism
(2015)
Journal Article
Visual mechanisms of motion analysis and motion perception
(2003)
Journal Article
A psychophysical investigation into the preview benefit in visual search
(2007)
Journal Article
Downloadable Citations
About Repository@Nottingham
Administrator e-mail: discovery-access-systems@nottingham.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2024
Advanced Search