The Effects of Driving Experience on the P300 Event-Related Potential during the Perception of Traffic Scenes

The incidence of human-error-related traffic collisions is markedly reduced among drivers who have few years of driving experience compared with those with little driving experience or fewer driving opportunities, even if they have a driver's license. This study analyzes the effect of driving experience on the perception of the traffic scenes through electroencephalograms (EEGs). Primarily, we focused on visual attention during driving, the essential visual function in the visual search and human gaze, and evaluated the P300, which is involved in attention, to explore the effect of driving experience on the visual attention of traffic scenes, not for improving visual ability. In the results, the P300 response was observed in both experienced and beginner drivers when they paid visual attention to the visual target. Furthermore, the latency for the peak amplitude of the P300 response among experienced drivers was markedly faster than that in beginner drivers, suggesting that the P300 latency is a piece of crucial information for driving experience on visual attention.