Visual search skills for hazard perception are critical in many domains. They are used by pilots to maintain situation awareness, by doctors reviewing screen images to diagnose health disorders, and security screeners inspecting for hazardous materials. They are also critical to a novice driver’s ability to detect roadway hazards. For novice drivers, poor visual search skills can increase the risk for traffic fatalities, which are the leading cause of death for teenagers nationwide. Studies have shown the primary cause of traffic crashes is driver error; the most common of these errors is the failure to perceive hazards in the driving environment. Virtual reality can be used to provide visual search training. However, the success of these training programs depends on the validity of eye-scanning patterns in the virtual environment and on the simulation parameters employed to elicit those patterns.

The overall objective of this research is to assess the validity of visual search patterns in the virtual world relative to the real world, and then to identify which simulation parameters are critical for achieving that real-world validity in simulator-based hazard perception training. Research will be conducted in the WTI simulator laboratory. The findings are expected to contribute to the development of virtual reality training programs for teen drivers.