This dissertation presents a line of research that investigates the information people use to pursue and evade other pedestrians and to perceive whether other pedestrians are pursuing or evading. Three experiments were conducted in the Virtual Environment Navigation Laboratory (VENLab), a large ambulatory virtual environment. Experiment 1 presents a dynamical systems description of human pursuit and evasion that uses the constant bearing strategy. The steering dynamics model developed by Warren and colleagues (Fajen & Warren, 2003; 2007; Cohen, Bruggeman, & Warren, under review) is shown to extend to pursuit-evasion interactions. Experiment 2 investigates whether the information provided by a pedestrian's contingent movement, trajectory, and head fixation specifies pursuit and evasion behavior. In this study participants interacted with a virtual avatar driven by the steering dynamics model in an immersive virtual environment. Pursuit is specified by contingent motion that preserves a constant bearing angle, and evasion is specified by movement that avoids a constant bearing angle. In addition the approach trajectory of an evading avatar is shown to effect the perception of evasion, and head fixation increases participants' sensitivity to pursuit and evasion when an avatar is presented at a close distance. Experiment 3 tests whether the behavior of multiple pedestrians is perceived sequentially or if pursuit behavior 'pops out' in a crowd. Participants were instructed to identify a pursuing avatar in the presence of one, two, or three evading (i.e. distracter) avatars. The data support a sequential perception of pedestrian movement. Overall the results of this dissertation provide an information-based account of pedestrian pursuit-evasion interactions.
Cohen, Jonathan A.,
"Perception of Pursuit and Evasion by Pedestrians"
(2010).
Cognitive Sciences Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.7301/Z0736P4M
