To Örebro University

Everyday driving relies on cognitive functions such as visual search, change detection and predictive attention for maintaining a high-level mental model of the world. Such functions are especially constrained by limited cognitive resources under complex conditions. Understanding the manner in which environmental complexity influences cognitive driving performance is key to improving road safety and developing human-factors guided driver assistance systems. Towards this, we explore the relationship between visuospatial and temporal complexity, and drivers’ situational awareness and decision-making. Particularly, we address two research questions: (I) How environmental complexity (visuospatial and temporal) impacts (in)attentional blindness; and (II) How does visual cueing impact anticipatory attention. In a naturalistic VR study, 150 participants drove in an immersive urban environment with varying complexity levels while responding to conditions such as overtaking, pedestrian crossings, occlusions, safety-criticality. The experiment, rooted to real-world driving data, incorporates a systematic cognitive model of environmental complexity consisting of dynamic visual, spatial, multimodal interaction features. Furthermore, we also analyse multimodal behavioural data, including gaze patterns, head movements, steering and braking. Results show that: (1) High visuospatial complexity increases inattentional blindness, with drivers compensating by prioritizing critical events; (2) Temporal complexity impairs detection performance, especially when events occur in rapid succession (1 sec) or when they last 5-10 seconds; and (3) Visual cueing improves anticipation, detection performance, and reaction time. These findings highlight the importance of adaptive strategies in overcoming cognitive limitations, providing insights for designing safety systems and training protocols for improving or assessing driver performance in everyday driving environments.