Several years ago, some vehicle models were launched with HUDs. The speed, dista

Question

Several years ago, some vehicle models were launched with HUDs. The speed, distance traveled, fuel level, and time was displayed over the windshield of the car instead of on a panel on the dashboard. Explain why this may have been a problem in terms of divided attention. Describe your thoughts on the pros and cons of this design.

Related to attention many people may probably think they are aware of almost everything in their environment. Explain why this intuition is not correct. Describe change blindness and explain the effect of cultural differences on change blindness.

Explanation / Answer

Heads-up displays, or HUDs, project details such as speed and directions directly into the driver’s field of view. In there, these are supposed to save drivers from having to look down at an instrument panel or display, ultimately reducing distractions and helping drivers keep their eyes on the road. Although how divided attention works when performing a single task that requires us to get visual information from two distinct spatial locations is somewhat understood, we are yet to learn more about the mechanisms of how divided attention works when the objects are in the same spatial location. In fact, a study of Su, Wu and Spence (2015) has revealed that HUDs can possibly decrease accuracy and increase reaction time during driving.

References:

Sun Y, Wu S, Spence I (2015) The Commingled Division of Visual Attention. PLoS ONE 10(6): e0130611. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0130611

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