Physical fatigue and its effect on road crossing decisions

Abstract

Introduction: Road crossing is a task that is undertaken by many people every day. While it may seem like a basic task on the surface, there are several different stimuli that need to be interpreted to in order to make a safe and effective crossing. How people perceive stimuli can be altered by various states of being, such as acute physical fatigue. The current study examined the effects of acute physical fatigue on visual perception and resultant road crossing decisions. Methods: 23 Participants were divided into a fatigue (experimental) and a no-fatigue (control) group. Participants in the fatigue group completed a repeated Wingate cycling protocol to induce acute physical fatigue and then proceeded to complete a video-based examination of road crossing decisions and perceptual judgments of speed and distance, of an oncoming vehicle, via pre-recorded stimuli. Participants in the no-fatigue group performed a low-resistance cycling protocol prior to experimental testing. Results: The analyses indicated that the fatigue manipulation was effective, with the fatigue-group reporting higher RPE scores during the cycling protocol, experiencing higher heart rates, and feeling more fatigued during the perceptual testing than the no-fatigue group. In general, perceptual estimates indicated that participants were able to distinguish between different speeds and distances and that both variables influenced road crossing decisions. However, no significant effects of fatigue were observed. Discussion: The current study showed that road crossing decisions are dependent on both the speed and distance of an oncoming vehicle. However, despite a robust manipulation of acute physical fatigue, no effects of fatigue on perceptual estimates and road crossing decisions were observed. Findings offer no support for the embodied perception perspective. Further research implementing a larger sample size is required to answer questions regarding the influence of acute physical fatigue on road crossing decisions and whether this is mediated by visual perception.