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. 2017 Nov 9;12(11):e0186871.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0186871. eCollection 2017.

Differences between racing and non-racing drivers: A simulator study using eye-tracking

Peter M van Leeuwen  1 , Stefan de Groot  1 , Riender Happee  1 , Joost C F de Winter  1
Affiliations

Differences between racing and non-racing drivers: A simulator study using eye-tracking

Peter M van Leeuwen et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Motorsport has developed into a professional international competition. However, limited research is available on the perceptual and cognitive skills of racing drivers. By means of a racing simulator, we compared the driving performance of seven racing drivers with ten non-racing drivers. Participants were tasked to drive the fastest possible lap time. Additionally, both groups completed a choice reaction time task and a tracking task. Results from the simulator showed faster lap times, higher steering activity, and a more optimal racing line for the racing drivers than for the non-racing drivers. The non-racing drivers' gaze behavior corresponded to the tangent point model, whereas racing drivers showed a more variable gaze behavior combined with larger head rotations while cornering. Results from the choice reaction time task and tracking task showed no statistically significant difference between the two groups. Our results are consistent with the current consensus in sports sciences in that task-specific differences exist between experts and novices while there are no major differences in general cognitive and motor abilities.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Overview of the racing simulator and eye tracker.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Overview of the circuit layout and centerline corner radius in meters.
The start/finish line and driving direction are indicated by the black line and arrow, respectively. Grey shaded areas indicate the corner segments.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Overview of all lap times of all sessions per participant.
The ranking is based on the best lap time, and each rank corresponds to one participant. The lap time median per participant is shown in red. Markers were given a random offset from -0.25 to 0.25 on their rank, to reduce the overlap of markers. The numbers above the graph correspond to the total number of completed laps and the number of discarded laps (in parentheses) per participant.
Fig 4
Fig 4. From top to bottom, overview of vehicle speed, steering angle, brake position, and throttle position as a function of traveled distance for the racing drivers and non-racing drivers averaged across both groups for the fastest laps of each of the four sessions.
Grey shaded areas indicate the four corners.
Fig 5
Fig 5
Top: absolute steering wheel velocity as a function of traveled distance of the fastest lap of each session (N = 28 for the racing drivers, N = 40 for the non-racing drivers). Individual lines are shown as well as the group means with a thick line type. Grey shaded areas indicate the four corners. Lower left: Probability density of the throttle position averaged across the fastest laps of each session, for the racing drivers and non-racing drivers. Significant differences (p < 0.01) are indicated by the black horizontal line at the bottom of the figure. Lower right: Brake position traces for the fastest lap of each session, for the racing drivers and non-racing drivers. A temporal shift was applied to the onset of braking (defined as brake position > 10). Individual participants’ brake positions are shown, as well as the group means indicated by the thicker line. The vertical dashed line indicates the brake onset time, at t = 0 s.
Fig 6
Fig 6. Individual paths of the vehicle center of the racing drivers (N = 28) and non-racing drivers (N = 40) for the fastest laps of each session for the second (left) and third (right) corner, the driving direction is indicated by the black arrow.
The three panels indicate the start (1), middle (2), and the end of the corner (3) and corresponds to an area of 40 by 40 m.
Fig 7
Fig 7. Gaze yaw angle (top), head yaw angle (middle), and eye-in-head angle (bottom) during the fastest overall lap of each session and racing drivers (N = 26) and non-racing drivers (N = 34).
Individual lines are shown as well as the group means by the thick line. Positive values correspond to rotation to the right. The eye-in-head was determined as the difference between the gaze yaw angle and the head yaw angle and illustrates the orientation of the eye with respect to the head. Grey shaded areas indicate the four corners and a gray dashed line in the figures references to zero.
Fig 8
Fig 8. Difference between the horizontal gaze angle and the tangent point angle as a function of track position for the racing drivers (top left) and non-racing drivers (top right) averaged across all sessions and fastest laps.
The black arrow indicates the driving direction. The lower left panel shows the horizontal gaze angle with respect to the tangent point, averaged across all sessions and fastest laps for both the racing drivers and the non-racing drivers. The lower right panel shows a definition of the horizontal gaze angle, the tangent point, and the color scaling.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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