Driver's Visual Cognition Behaviors of Traffic Signs Based on Eye Movement Parameters

A dynamic visual cognition experiment was carried out in driving simulation barn with eye tracker system to get drivers' eye movement parameters when they were reading traffic signs with various information quantities in different speeds. The eye movement parameters include fixation number and duration. Driver's visual area was divided into three areas using dynamic cluster method. Further analysis was conducted on the eye movement parameters of the three areas. Findings were discussed in this paper: the fixation distribution has a high correlation with driving speed and information quantity. As the driving speed and information quantity increased, the fixation number and duration in traffic sign area have an increasing trend and drivers have less visual cognition to front lane. When the guide signs have more than five amount of information, drivers' fixation number and duration have an abrupt change and the effectiveness of visual cognition decreased significantly. It is recommended that the highway traffic guide sign information volume should not exceed 5. Under the same condition, the driver needs more fixation when recognizing non-guide signs and the visual cognition process is more complicated.