Effects of anger and sadness on the drivers' useful visual field : toward a tunnel vision phenomenon?
Résumé
The useful visual field (UVF) is defined as the area around the fixation point from which information is briefly stored and interpreted during a visual task. It corresponds to the part of the peripheral visual field around the fixation point inside which sources of information can be processed without any movement of the eyes or the head. It is determined while carrying out a dual task (detection in the central part and the peripheral part on the visual field). The UVF is assessed on the basis of the number of signals detected in the peripheral task in which the participant has to detect the presence of a signal located at different eccentricities in his visual field. The drivers' UVF can be influenced by internal factors causing a tunnel-visionlike phenomenon. Here, the influence of anger and sadness on the UVF is studied. The results revealed a positive effect of anger: better detection in the central task without decreasing the detection in the peripheral task. Secondly, a tunnel-visionlike phenomenon was also observed in sadness. A classification of these emotions in the inattention taxonomy is discussed