Det perifera seendets betydelse bland gångtrafikanter i naturlig miljö

Sammanfattning: The importance, and the role, of peripheral vision amongst pedestrians, is an area which for a long time has remained unexplored. Previous studies regarding peripheral vision and pedestrians have mostly studied the characteristics of peripheral vision, the general visual behaviours amongst pedestrians and whether people affected by a natural loss of peripheral vision fixate on different objects compared to those with normal vision. To examine the role of peripheral vision amongst pedestrians, an experiment consisting of 20 participants was conducted. The experiment took place in a car park, where head movements (i.e. how many times each participant moved their head) and head directions (i.e. in which direction the participants’ moved their heads) of the participants were recorded using three action cameras. Two of the cameras were mounted on a helmet which the participants used during the experiment. The third camera was in the hands of the experimenter, recording the participants from behind. The experiment consisted of four different conditions. Two conditions where the participants’ peripheral vision was blocked to different extents, one with no manipulation of the visual field and one where the participants were told to watch a video on a cell phone during the walk. The results demonstrated a significant difference in the number of head movements between all four conditions. Furthermore, the results also demonstrated a significant difference in the relative frequency of downwards head directions between the first three conditions. After the experiment, the participants answered a short survey which included questions related to each condition. The answers from the survey showcased, amongst other things, that the participants thought that the condition where their peripheral vision was blocked to the largest extent was the most difficult one. A thematic analysis was conducted based on the recordings of a think-aloud-protocol which the participants were told to conduct during the experiment. The thematic analysis demonstrated, amongst other things, that the participants thought that the condition performed with no manipulation of the visual field was easy, that they felt insecure when their peripheral vision was blocked and therefore had to increase the number of head movements, and that they sometimes felt the need to redirect their gaze away from the cell phone during that condition. The conclusion which can be drawn based on the results is that the peripheral vision is widely used amongst pedestrians in natural settings, which in part is based on the fact that the participants increased their number of head movements when their peripheral vision was limited and by their own expressed thoughts regarding the different conditions. However, the results are not able to explain exactly how the peripheral vision is used amongst pedestrians.