Auditory information improves time-to-collision estimation for accelerating vehicles
* Presenting author
Abstract:
Previous studies found no substantial advantage of additional auditory information in judging the time-to-collision (TTC) of visually presented objects approaching at a constant speed. However, auditory information might be helpful in assessing whether a vehicle accelerates. In the present study, high-fidelity interactive audiovisual simulations of a vehicle with internal combustion engine in an urban traffic scenario were presented. Participants estimated the TTC of vehicles that approached either at a constant speed for 3.0 s, or travelled at a constant speed for 1.5 s before accelerating for another 1.5 s. In the conditions with constant speed, TTC estimates for audiovisually presented vehicles were similar to the estimates for vehicles presented only visually, although the mean estimated TTCs were slightly shorter in the audiovisual condition. For accelerating vehicles, however, the TTC was substantially overestimated in the visual-only condition. This result is compatible with a first-order TTC estimation largely ignoring acceleration, as reported in the literature on visual TTC estimation. In the audiovisual condition, the extent of TTC overestimation was significantly reduced relative to the visual-only condition. Thus, when auditory information about the acceleration is available in addition to visual information, this provides a significant benefit for estimating TTC in traffic scenarios.