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Updated: Jun 18, 2025
Using a Virtual Reality Walking Simulator to Investigate Pedestrian Behavior
Published on: June 9, 2020
Children's ability to estimate approaching vehicle time-to-arrival following training in a virtual pedestrian
David C Schwebel1, Anna Johnston1, Leslie A McClure2
1Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama.
Insights
Seven- and eight-year-old children improved their ability to judge vehicle arrival times after virtual reality (VR) pedestrian safety training. These improvements in judging traffic time-to-arrival were retained six months later.
Area of Science:
- Pedestrian safety research
- Cognitive development in children
- Human-computer interaction
Background:
- Child pedestrian injuries are a major public health concern.
- Accurate judgment of oncoming traffic is crucial for safe street crossing.
- Underdeveloped cognitive skills can impair children's pedestrian safety.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess 7- and 8-year-olds' ability to judge vehicle time-to-arrival.
- To evaluate the effectiveness of virtual reality (VR) pedestrian simulator training on these judgments.
- To examine the retention of improved judgments six months post-training.
Main Methods:
- A randomized trial involving 500 children aged 7-8 years.
- Assessment of time-to-arrival judgments using a video-based task before and after VR training.
- Intensive VR-based pedestrian safety training using either a kiosk or smartphone VR headset.
- Repeat assessment of time-to-arrival judgments immediately after training and 6 months later.
Main Results:
- Children were initially more accurate with closer and faster-moving vehicles, with a significant speed x distance interaction.
- Distance cues were more influential than speed cues in children's judgments.
- All children showed significant improvement in judging vehicle arrival times post-training, regardless of VR type.
- Improvements in judging time-to-arrival were maintained at the 6-month follow-up.
Conclusions:
- Children tend to underestimate vehicle arrival times.
- VR-based training effectively improved children's time-to-arrival judgments, a skill retained long-term.
- Distance and speed cues are critical for accurate estimations, and VR training enhances their utilization.
- VR training is recommended for child pedestrian safety, with careful implementation to avoid unintended consequences.
Objectives:
Child pedestrian injuries represent a significant public health challenge. Understanding the most complex cognitive skills required to cross streets helps us understand, improve, and protect children in traffic, as underdeveloped cognitive skill likely impacts children's pedestrian safety. One complex component of street-crossing is the cognitive-perceptual task of judging time-to-arrival of oncoming traffic. We examined capacity of 7- and 8-year-olds to judge time-to-arrival for vehicles approaching from varying distances and speeds, as well as improvement in those judgments following intensive street-crossing training in a virtual reality (VR) pedestrian simulator.
Methods:
500 seven- and eight-year-olds participated in a randomized trial evaluating use of a large kiosk VR versus smartphone-based VR headset to teach street-crossing skills. Prior to randomization into VR training condition and also prior to initiation of any training, children engaged in a video-based vehicle approach estimation task to assess ability to judge traffic time-to-arrival. They then engaged in multiple VR-based pedestrian safety training sessions in their randomly assigned condition until achieving adult functioning. Soon after training and again 6 months later, children repeated the vehicle estimation task.
Results:
Prior to randomization or training, children were more accurate judging time to arrival for closer versus farther traffic, and rapidly-moving versus slower-moving traffic, but those results were subsumed by a speed x distance interaction. The interaction suggested distance cues were used more prominently than speed cues, and speed had varying effects at different distances. Training group had minimal effect on learning and all children became significantly better at judging vehicle arrival times following training.
Conclusions:
Children tend to underestimate vehicle arrival times. Distance cues are more impactful on time-to-arrival judgments than speed cues, but children's estimations based both on manipulations of vehicle speed and manipulations of vehicle distance improved post-training. Improvements were retained six months later. This finding is consistent with psychophysics research suggesting vehicle approach judgments rely on optical size and looming, which are impacted both by vehicle speeds and distances. Implementation of VR-based training for child pedestrian safety is recommended, as it may improve children's judgment of vehicle time-to-arrival, but it must be conducted cautiously to avoid iatrogenic effects.
