The Effect of Visual Field Defects on Driving Performance

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Abstract
CENTRAL AND peripheral visual field defects pose different problems for performing everyday activities, and it can be expected that these differences will also emerge during driving. In the present study, the effect of visual field defects on driving performance was assessed by means of a driving simulator. For subjects with central visual field defects, it was hypothesized that timely recognition of traffic signs would be reduced and that estimating the distance to and driving speed of lead cars would be more difficult. On the basis of the double model for steering by Donges1 (also cited in Land and Horwood2) it was further expected that subjects with central visual field defects would have more difficulty matching the road curvature but that the ability to keep a proper lane position would be intact. Subjects with peripheral field defects, on the other hand, were expected to have more difficulty detecting stimuli in the periphery, resulting in an increased risk of accidents with traffic participants approaching from the sides. Further, because subjects with peripheral visual field defects are forced to scan the environment to get an overview, it was expected that lateral position control would decrease.