ABSTRACT
Driving in the real world is a collection of visual-motor tasks involving a vehicle and everything else. The tasks vary as a function of time and place and speed. They are a population of “customers” demanding to be served with uncertain levels of urgency. Each task competes with all the others for attention and frequently must wait to be observed. “Distraction”, the unplanned, but inevitable, shifting of attention from its present focus, and “inattention”, the consequent abandonment of the prior focus, are necessities of driving in the real world. The principal thesis here is that uncertainty at a place in the visual field elicits a driver’s visual attention to reduce uncertainty to an acceptable level. Since only one place can be inspected at any moment, other places must wait in a queue for attention - like customers in a bank.
