Hallucinations make drivers cause accidents for pedestrians

When the driver focuses on driving, objects that appear in peripheral vision can be removed by the brain, creating a new illusion, increasing the risk of accidents.

Many drivers causing accidents in the US said they never saw cyclists on the side of the road before their cars crashed into the victim, as if the bike rider suddenly appeared and rushed into their car.

Many drivers do not recognize someone in front of them right before the accident.(Artwork:ABC News).

A study published in the journal Psychological Science on November 15 partly explains this phenomenon. The research results show that what we see at the peripheral vision is sometimes just a visual illusion created by the brain during the process of information processing.

Most people think that they can see things clearly in the peripheral vision, outside the direct view of the eye, according to the researchers. However, in fact, our brains cannot see the difference in image quality in the peripheral vision and the center of the visual field .

"In certain situations, most peripheral vision can become visual illusions. This effect seems to have an impact on many basic visual characteristics and common cognitive mechanisms of people." , Marte Otten, research author at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, said.

When we focus on looking at the center of the image, we will see a homogeneous photo even though the image is in the center and the periphery is different.(Photo: Uniformity Illusion).

The team gave 20 volunteers a look at many photos that changed in shape, orientation, brightness, nuance and movement. The results showed that, when focusing on looking at the center of the photo, the volunteers only saw a uniform image, although the image in the center and the periphery were really different.

Similarly, when the driver is staring intently at the front lane, the bike appears at the curb in the peripheral vision will be automatically removed by the brain, especially when it is dark or rainy. Consequently, drivers may crash into cyclists without knowing it.