David Crundall

I'm a member of the Accident Research Unit (ARU) , the Cognition and Language Research Group and the Risk, Social Processes and Health Group (RaSPH). My current research is concerned with the allocation of visual attention in both theoretical and applied domains. The applied nature of my work tends to focus upon driving and driving related behaviour within the Accident Research Unit , though not exclusively so. My theoretical research is currently focused on a number of key concepts in the attention literature, though often the theoretical and applied strands of research blend in a reciprocal manner.

• Recent and current research projects
• Teaching
• Recent Publications

 

Research and current research projects

Hazard perception in learner drivers

Hazard perception training is a vital component of the curriculum that all learner drivers should undertake. We are exploring different ways to train hazard perception skills in our driving simulator. We monitor eye movements and can see when a driver first notices a hazard and how long they take to process it. The simulator also tells us what they do to avoid the hazard. Current research is comparing different training packages to see which produce the best improvement in these measures.

Profiling risky road users

One current research theme is the idenitification of risky road users via psychometric testing. We are looking at a wide range of road user populations from car drivers, to motorcyclists, to truck drivers. This research is funded by both industry and Government agencies.

Visual attention and line tracing

One purely theoretical interest is how attention moves during an experiment which requires participants to visually trace the path of convoluted lines. This touches on some of the fundamental issues in attention research, including how attention moves (analogue versus quantal movement) and pre-attentive versus attentive object parsing. Specifically there is a current question as to whether attention moves along the line with a serial focus, or whether it spreads along the line enveloping it as part of a parsing process. Our data suggests that the former hypothesis is correct, though this is a controversial position to take.

Eye movements during map reading

As an applied offshoot of the line tracing studies I became interested in how people trace lines (roads) on maps. Eye movements can tell us how people interrogate maps for different tasks. Currently we are comparing two different forms of map: schematic and topographic to see which produces the best results under task different conditions.

Facial emotion and the attentional blink

Several recent papers have suggested that emotional facial stimuli can capture, hold and direct attention. This is not a universally or wholly accepted point of view, and researchers are constantly looking for new experimental techniques to improve the evidence. I have recently begun to use the attentional blink paradigm to assess the effectiveness of emotive faces in holding and directing attention. Initial results suggest that the typical profile of the attentional blink can be influenced by substituting fear faces for neutral faces to act as the first target in the rapid serial visual presentation of stimuli.

Teaching

My current teaching responsibilities include:

Language and Cognition (C8CLLC)– a third year specialist course including some advanced topics in visual attention.

Practical Methods (C82MPR)– a second year project class called the face of fear

Post Graduate training in e-prime – click here to take my easy tutorial

Recent Publications

In press

• Crundall, D. & Underwood, G. (in press). Some practical constraints on Cognitive Ethology: Striking the balance between a theoretical approach and a practical methodology. British Journal of Psychology.
• Crundall, D. Bibby, P., Clarke, D. D., Ward, P., & Bartle, C. (in press). Car drivers’ attitudes towards motorcyclists: a survey. Accident Analysis and Prevention.
• Crundall, D., Cole, G., & Underwood, G.(in press). Automatic and controlled processes in tracing lines: Is line tracing obligatory? Perception and Psychophysics.
• Crundall, D., Humphrey, K., & Clarke, D. D. (in press). Perception and appraisal of approaching motorcycles at junctions. Transportation Research Part F.
• Jackson, A. L., Chapman, P., & Crundall, D. (in press). What happens next? Predicting other road users’ behaviour as a function of driving experience and processing time. Ergonomics.
  

2008

• Crundall, D., Dewhurst, R., & Underwood, G. (2008). Does attention move or spread during mental curve tracing? Perception & Psychophysics,70, 2, 373-388.

2007

• Crundall, D., Cole, G. G., & Galpin, A. (2007). Object bias is mediated by the collinearity of targets. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 60, 1, 137-153.
• Bener, A., Al Humoud, S. M. Q., Price, P., Azhar, A., Khalid, M. K., Rysavy, M., & Crundall, D. (2007). The effects of seatbelt legislation on hospital admissions with road traffic injuries in an oil-rich fast developing country. International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion, 14, 2, 103-107.
• Bener, A., Crundall, D., Haigney, D., Bensiali, A. K., & Al-Falasi (2007). Driver behaviour, lapses, errors and violations on the road: United Arab Emirates study. Advances in Transportation Studies, Section A, 12, 5-13.
• Thompson, C., Underwood, G., &. Crundall, D. (2007). Previous attentional set can induce an attentional blink with task-irrelevant initial targets. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 60, 12, 1603-1609.

 

2006

• Crundall, D., van Loon, E., & Underwood, G. (2006). Attraction and distraction of attention with outdoor media. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 38, 671-677.
  

2005

• Crundall, D., Chapman, P., France, E., Underwood, G., & Phelps, N. (2005). What attracts attention during police pursuit driving. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 19, 409-420.
• Crundall, D., Bains, M., Chapman, P., & Underwood, G. (2005). Regulating conversation during driving: A problem for mobile telephones? Transportation Research Part F, 8, 3, 197-211.
• Bener, A., & Crundall, D. (2005). Road traffic accidents in the United Arab Emirates compared to western countries. Advances in Transportation Studies, Section A, 6, 5-12.
• Underwood, G., Crundall, D., Hodson, K. (2005). Confirming statements about pictures of natural scenes. Perception, 32, 1069-1084.
  

2004

• Crundall, D., Shenton, C., & Underwood, G. (2004). Eye movements during active car-following. Perception, 33, 575 – 586.

2003

• Crundall, D., Chapman, P., Phelps, N., and Underwood, G. (2003). Eye movements and hazard perception in police pursuit and emergency response driving. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 9, (3), 163-174.
• Underwood, G., Chapman, P., Berger, Z., & Crundall, D. (2003) Driving experience, attentional focusing, and the recall of recently inspected events. Transportation Research, Part F, 6, 4, 289-304.
• Underwood, G., Chapman, P., Brocklehurst, N., Underwood, J., and Crundall, D. (2003). Visual attention while driving: Sequences of eye fixations made by experienced and novice drivers. Ergonomics, 46, 629-646.

2002

• Crundall, D., Underwood, G., and Chapman, P. (2002). Attending to the peripheral world while driving. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 16, 459-475.
• Underwood, G., Chapman, P., Bowden, K. & Crundall, D. (2002). Visual search while driving: Skill and awareness during inspection of the scene. Transportation Research Part F, 5, 87-97.
• Underwood, G., Crundall, D., and Chapman, P. (2002). Selective searching while driving: the role of experience in hazard detection and general surveillance. Ergonomics, 45, 1-12.

2001

• Crundall, D. and Underwood, G. (2001). The priming function of road signs. Transportation Research Part F, 4, 187-200.

Before 2000

• Crundall, D., Underwood, G., and Chapman, P. (1999). Driving experience and the functional field of view. Perception, 28, 1075-1087.
• Crundall, D. and Underwood, G. (1999). Is attention required in a model of saccade generation? Behaviour and Brain Sciences, 22, 679-680.
• Crundall, D. E. and Underwood, G. (1998).The effects of experience and processing demands on visual information acquisition in drivers. Ergonomics, 41, 4, 448-458.
• Underwood, G., Chapman, P., Wright, S., & Crundall, D. (1999). Anger while driving. Transportation Research Part F, 55-68.