The Impact of Speed and Orientation on Nighttime Recognition of Retro-reflectively Outfitted Pedestrians

Date
2015-09-30
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Abstract
Objective: To determine how speed of motion and orientation impact observersā€˜ decisions about the recognisability of pedestrians in biological motion retro-reflectors. Method: Forty undergraduate students observed videos of pedestrians who were standing, walking or running with the side or back of their body oriented towards the observer at three distances in high and low beams. Participants decided which of the two pedestrians was most recognizable as a person. Results: For both orientations, observers found walking and running pedestrians more recognizable than standing pedestrians. Observers also found running pedestrians more recognizable than walkers. The impact of pedestrian orientation was dependent on speed. When standing, pedestrians in the back orientation were selected more often, but when running, side-oriented pedestrians were selected as the most recognizable. Conclusions: Observers find pedestrians moving at faster speeds more recognizable than those moving more slowly. The effect of pedestrian orientation depends on speed of motion
Description
Keywords
Psychology--Experimental
Citation
Mian, J. (2015). The Impact of Speed and Orientation on Nighttime Recognition of Retro-reflectively Outfitted Pedestrians (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/28190