Date of Award

8-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

Committee Chair/Advisor

Dr. Richard Tyrrell

Committee Member

Dr. Joanne Wood

Committee Member

Dr. Patrick Rosopa

Abstract

The majority of fatal crashes involving pedestrians occur at night. Insufficient conspicuity has been implicated as a causal factor in these crashes, and there is a critical need for innovative strategies to increase the nighttime conspicuity of pedestrians. This experiment investigated the efficacy of an 11-minute educational video aimed to teach road users about critical and relevant visual perception concepts (e.g., contrast, retroreflectivity, biological motion) that impact nighttime conspicuity. Fifty-four college students were randomly assigned to either watch the video (intervention; n=27) or not (control; n=27). Each participant provided quantitative judgments regarding the nighttime visibility of a pedestrian on an unilluminated roadway. The pedestrian’s clothing was manipulated using five strategically chosen configurations. The results confirmed that those who watched the video correctly estimated shorter recognition distances for clothing configurations that did not include retroreflective markings, and correctly estimated longer recognition distances for configurations that included retroreflective markings configured to present biological motion information. Similar patterns were also present in the participants’ ratings of safety and visibility. Further, the participants who watched the video exhibited greater comprehension of critical concepts and they more accurately ranked the visibility of the five clothing configurations. Overall, these results provide strong support for the effectiveness of an online, video-based intervention that is designed to increase awareness of key concepts that are critical in helping vulnerable road users to better understand the dangers of interacting with traffic at night and to maximize their own conspicuity to approaching drivers at night.

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