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Abstract:
Instructions given to novices learning certain tasks of applied navigation often suggest that gazedirection (?line of sight?) should preview the path the operator desires to take (e.g., Bondurant Blakemore, 1998; Motorcycle Safety Foundation, 1992; Morris, 1990), presumably because looking behavior can ultimately affect steering control through hand, arm, or leg movements that could lead to undesired path deviations. Here, we control participants? gaze-direction while driving an automobile in virtual reality, and find that gaze-eccentricity has a large, systematic effect on steering and lane-position. Moreover, even when head-position and postural effects of the driver are controlled, there remains a significant bias to drive in the direction of fixation, indicating the existence of a perceptual, and not merely motor, phenomenon.
