I'm David Schwebel,
professor of psychology
and associate dean for Research in the Sciences
at University of Alabama at Birmingham.
My science is designed to look
at basic psychological and behavioral principles,
but to apply it to a real-life problem
like preventing children's injuries.
Pedestrian injuries
are a leading cause of death
for children in the United States and so
we sought out to think about "How could we teach children
to cross streets safely?"
Crossing a street is actually very complex.
Children do not understand how to judge traffic speed,
traffic distances, how to simultaneously
manage information from multiple vehicles.
Children need time to develop those skills
and we think we can teach it
at a slightly younger age than it normally develops.
Today, the existing interventions
to teach children to cross the street aren't very good
so we began to think about "What are our alternatives?"
and virtual reality came to mind.
I want you to go ahead and step down
when you think that it looks safe.
SCHWEBEL: Virtual reality
is now technologically feasible and relatively cheap,
so we can create a virtual world,
a computer-driven pedestrian environment,
and ask the child to cross the street
within that virtual world.
Yes! You got it!
Good job.
We want to be comprehensive in understanding
the children we study.
You have any questions?
Okay, let's get started.
First, we need to understand
the level of pedestrian skill at the beginning,
so we take them out to a field location
and we measure when they would cross the street,
using real traffic in the real city.
First, we have them stand next to the street and shout "Now!"
Shout "Now!" when you think it looks clear.
Now. Now.
Now.
I want you to take two steps forward.
SCHWEBEL: Second, we have them stand
two steps away from the curb
and they take two steps towards the curb,
without entering the street,
when they think it's safe to cross.
-All right, move back.
Okay, we're going to let them cross.
[Beep]
Participant 215 via our follow-up lab, walk a line.
SCHWEBEL: Behavioral scientists have developed ways
to look at behavior objectively, to use rigorous methodology,
to use rigorous science, and, ultimately, to understand
behavior and thinking so we improve human health.
To understand behavior, we have to get
a comprehensive picture of the child.
-Are you ready? Good.
Good job.
We measure their answers to stories.
Daisy sees a squirrel, so what do you think Daisy does?
-Chase it.
SCHWEBEL: We ask them questions, scenarios,
where we talk about "How would you get across the street
to chase your dog, who's run away?"
-Okay, what would be the safest way to go?
They get at things like their demographics,
their knowledge about pedestrian safety, and so on.
-"How good do you think you are at crossing streets
compared to the other kids your age?"
We also measure temperament, through behavioral measure --
I want you to draw your circle as slow as you can.
SCHWEBEL: Such as
drawing as slowly as possible --
How well does the child slow down?
And then we use a little robot on a tabletop.
We've recreated two city intersections
and the children use a little robot
to indicate how they would cross the street
in this replica city on a tabletop.
Ready, go.
SCHWEBEL: In order to program the avatar
in the virtual environment,
we have the child walk
in the hallway several times to measure their walking speed.
I think we are on the cutting edge,
to be using virtual reality as a way to test
children's pedestrian behavior.
It's innovative and unique and it offers the opportunity
for us to study something that we couldn't easily study
in the real world.
-Oh, my gosh! I think you need to try that again.
SCHWEBEL: The room is kept almost completely dark.
That allows the child to feel immersed into the virtual world.
-Okay, this is our little headtracker and this
helps the computer know which way you're going to look, okay?
SCHWEBEL: We arrange a headtracker
to understand how often the child looks left and right.
Wow! That was close.
Try to be more careful next time.
SCHWEBEL: They stand on a wooden curb --
it replicates a real-world curb --
and, when they think it's safe, they step down off the curb
onto a platform.
That triggers the avatar to walk across the street
at the previously programmed walking speed.
With NIH's funding, we've been able to really understand
how children cross streets and how we can make them safer.
In order to prevent injuries, we need to understand
how people act, how people think.
Prevention is very closely tied to psychology,
to human behavior, to the social sciences.
The behavioral sciences can influence human health
just like biomedical sciences can.
Just keep watching the traffic in both directions.
SCHWEBEL: We expect the virtual reality training
will prove to be among the best options available
to train children to cross streets
and, ultimately, be safer pedestrians.
-Awesome! You can do things that make you more safe.