Accident Vulnerability and Vision for Action: A Pilot Investigation

Abstract

Many accidents, such as those involving collisions or trips, appear to involve failures of vision, but the association between accident risk and vision as conventionally assessed is weak or absent. We addressed this conundrum by embracing the distinction inspired by neuroscientific research, between vision for perception and vision for action. A dual-process perspective predicts that accident vulnerability will be associated more strongly with vision for action than vision for perception. In this preliminary investigation, older and younger adults, with relatively high and relatively low self-reported accident vulnerability (Accident Proneness Questionnaire), completed three behavioural assessments targeting vision for perception (Freiburg Visual Acuity Test); vision for action (Vision for Action Test—VAT); and the ability to perform physical actions involving balance, walking and standing (Short Physical Performance Battery). Accident vulnerability was not associated with visual acuity or with performance of physical actions but was associated with VAT performance. VAT assesses the ability to link visual input with a specific action—launching a saccadic eye movement as rapidly as possible, in response to shapes presented in peripheral vision. The predictive relationship between VAT performance and accident vulnerability was independent of age, visual acuity and physical performance scores. Applied implications of these findings are considered.

Assessing the impact of peripheral vision on construction site safety

“…Lipscomb (2000) reported that eye injuries still have a very common occurrence despite standards, regulation and the availability of high-grade ocular protection. Lambert et al (2020) provided that there is a strong association between accident vulnerability and vision for action, which is to respond to the shapes presented in the peripheral vision with a saccadic eye movement as rapidly as possible. Despite this association, accident causalities in construction have not yet been considered well in relation to poor vision and eye related problems.…”